Everyone came down hard on Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes for changing integral part of TMNT mythology when it was announced that they were working on a new turtles movie simply called ‘Ninja Turtles’, but did you know that back in the day, one of the franchise’s creators had planned to add something to it in a fourth movie? Here’s a fun fact: There was supposed to be a fifth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. In the fourth live-action movie that was never produced, co-creator Kevin Eastman conceptualized a fourth turtle named after a great artist from the medium in which the heroes in a half-shell originated.

According to /Film, the new addition to the team was to be named Kirby after the late, great Jack Kirby, who’s known as the co-creator of some of the world’s most iconic heroes such as Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers, and many more. Meant to debut in a film called ‘TMNT: The Foot Walks Again’, Kirby never saw the light of day until Eastman recently put concept art from that unmade film up for sale at Heritage Auctions. Additionally, the lot includes other concepts for characters meant to appear in the movie as well. Here’s the description from the site:

Kevin Eastman – Character Designs for Unfilmed Fourth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Original Art Lot of 25 (1995-97). Many of these 14 pieces also have art on the backs, for a total of 25 pages of art! Many are devoted to Kirby, the “fifth turtle,” but also featured are Fang, Shredder, Spyder, Nano Spyder, Super Shredder, Kasey, Talbot, Lawson, Bugman, and Evil April. Each piece measures 8.5″ x 12″. All are rendered in pen, with one color piece in watercolor and the others in marker.

Kirby was also supposed to be a bit less kid-friendly and the fourth film was meant to be darker than the three that preceded it. Check out the pictures of Kirby and some of the others from the ‘TMNT: The Foot Walks Again’ lot up for auction below:

Now that you have been introduced to Kirby, what do you think of him? Do you think there’s a place in the TMNT mythology for him? Do you think Michael Bay will hear about this and put Kirby in his movie? Share your thoughts in the comments below!