Sneak peek: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' sequel focuses on the fun

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Trailer: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows' Trailer for the sequel "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows."

How do you make a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequel bigger and better than the first? Tossing in a sports-themed vigilante and more bad guys helps, but so does embracing a fun, lighthearted, anything-but-grim nature.

“We’re not making Dark Knight with Ninja Turtles. We’re making Ninja Turtles for kids, teenagers, adults and everyone,” says Megan Fox, who reprises her role as journalist April O’Neil in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (in theaters June 3), directed by David Green (Earth to Echo).

With the help of April and cameraman extraordinaire Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett), the central quartet of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Donatello — played via motion capture by Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher, Alan Ritchson and Jeremy Howard, respectively — saved New York City from the dangerous supervillain Shredder (Brian Tee) in the original 2014 film.

The next chapter finds Manhattan again in jeopardy, thanks to a mysterious über-baddie pulling nefarious strings from afar, yet also offers a lot of extra Turtle time missing from the first movie.

“There weren’t that many scenes with the brothers just being the brothers alone and the four of them hanging out,” says producer Andrew Form. “You really get to know these characters a lot more in this movie.”

Not to say there won’t be any sibling rivalry. Raph has long taken issue with Leonardo’s leadership skills, and that rivalry brews up again when a situation arises that puts April in serious trouble and stems in part from the Turtles feeling like no one will ever accept them for the heroes they are.

“It’s tough,” Fox says. “I have two kids in real life and you don’t want to see them fight and beat each other up. You want them to love and appreciate each other.”

They also get a heap of new baddies on the scene. Shredder is back but he’s joined by mad scientist Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) as well as Bebop and Rocksteady, two henchmen played by Gary Anthony Williams and pro wrestler Stephen “Sheamus” Farrelly before being transformed into the monstrous warthog and rhino that Turtles fans know and love. That pairing “can battle the Turtles and give them a run for their money in a big way,” says Form.

Luckily, the Turtles get some help in the form of another classic character, Casey Jones (Stephen Amell of TV’s Arrow), a corrections officer who decides to be a masked street-level superhero.

Fox says April and Casey have a rocky, banter-y relationship at first. “When she’s surrounded by 30 Foot Soldiers, she does realize she needs Casey’s help.”

But what Amell says he likes about Casey is how he deals with stumbling into an underground world of extraordinary mutant good guys and crazy antagonists. “He gets used to 7-foot-tall Turtles who can speak probably a little bit quicker than you would in normal everyday life.”