News · 2026-07-25
The Last Ronin III Sets a Summer 2027 Arrival as Matthew Rosenberg Takes Over the TMNT Ongoing
IDW has released the first look at Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin III - Return for New York, the third and final chapter of the main Roninverse storyline. Entertainment Weekly ran the exclusive on July 24, during San Diego Comic-Con 2026, and confirmed the series arrives in summer 2027.
Source: IDW Publishing via Entertainment Weekly
The cover is by Isaac and Esau Escorza with colorist Luis Antonio Delgado, and is an homage to the cover of the first Last Ronin series. The figure on it is Casey Marie Jones, daughter of the late Casey Jones and April O’Neil.
The original creative team is back for the finale: Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, the Escorza brothers, Delgado and Ben Bishop.
“And, here we are, capping off the main trilogy with TMNT: The Last Ronin III - Return for New York, and we couldn’t be happier,” Waltz told EW. He framed the stakes as a question: “will Casey Marie Jones, Odyn, Uno, Yi, and Moja be worthy of their TMNT predecessors in this ultimate battle for the heart and soul of New York City?”
That closes a line of books running since 2020. The Last Ronin (2020) followed an aged Michelangelo avenging his brothers. The Last Ronin: The Lost Years (2022) filled in his transformation and introduced the new Turtles Odyn, Moja, Uno and Yi. The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution (2024) carried that generation forward, and The Last Ronin - Training Day (2026) covered Mikey training Casey.
Eastman put the timeline in perspective. “It’s hard to believe this journey started nearly 40 years ago with a simple 25-page outline by Peter Laird and myself,” he said, crediting the creative team, Nickelodeon, IDW and the readers.
The flagship ongoing changes writers with issue #25
The second half of the announcement is a creative-team change on the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. With issue #25 in January 2027, Gene Luen Yang hands the book to Matthew Rosenberg, with art by Juann Cabal and colors by Luis Antonio Delgado. IDW describes the opening story as one in which “the greatest roster of villains, both new and old, have assembled to hunt down the Turtles over the course of a single night.”
Source: IDW Publishing via Entertainment Weekly
Rosenberg, whose credits include Uncanny X-Men, Spawn and If Destruction Be Our Lot, said he bought an Eastman and Laird issue as a teenager and fell for comics on the spot. “It is truly an honor to not only add to the legacy of four of New York’s greatest heroes, but to follow in the footsteps of so many creators I love like Erik Larsen, Jim Lawson, Sophie Campbell, Tom Waltz, and most recently legends like Jason Aaron, Juan Ferreyra, Gene Luen Yang, and Freddie E. Williams II,” he said. He described the book he is making as “shells-against-the-wall grittiness, laugh-out-loud humor, non-stop intensity, and some genuine family drama.”
Yang is leaving for a creator-owned project. “Working on TMNT has been a dream come true. I’m sad to leave, though I’m also excited about the creator-owned project that is pulling me away,” he said. “And I’m super excited to continue with the Turtles as a fan!”
The handover lands three days after TMNT #300 reached shops on July 22, the issue that opened Yang and Freddie E. Williams II’s The City That Never Dies.
Both items came out of Comic-Con weekend, where IDW ran a panel titled TMNT: Shellebrating 300 Issues of Turtle Power & Last Ronin. Paramount Games Studio senior vice president Shawn Kittelsen, who is writing the PlatinumGames-developed Last Ronin game, used the panel to describe it as “a AAA, narrative, third-person action game.”
Our comics catalogue tracks the IDW run issue by issue, including the Roninverse books.
Sources
- NickALive: ‘TMNT: The Last Ronin 3’ Reveals First Look at Finale as Flagship Comic Series Changes Hands at IDW
- Entertainment Weekly: TMNT: The Last Ronin 3 first look and flagship series new writer (exclusive)
- Bleeding Cool: Matthew Rosenberg To Write The Turtles Ongoing Comic As Well As Spawn
- Screen Rant: 7 Years Later, TMNT: The Last Ronin Will Finally End
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