William Fichtner Confirms His 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Role

He may not get the credit for it he deserves, but William Fichtner makes for a great bad guy. A very specific, slightly offbeat bad guy who is both menacing and more than a little comical. Check him out in Drive Angry for a prime example of how good he can be at it. When he was cast in Michael Bay and Jonathan Liebesman's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, his role was left up to mystery, only revealing that it was "iconic". That led many to speculate he was playing Shredder, the Turtles' main baddie. Well, speculate no more.

Fichtner spoke with HuffPo Canada and revealed he is indeed donning the pointy armor of Shredder....

Fichtner:  "I play Shredder. It is cool. It’s one of those things that came along where I thought, “Really? Let me think about this for a minute.” [Laughs] Then I was like, “Yeah, OK, this sounds like a journey.” I’m very glad that it worked out, I’m really glad that I’m doing it."

It looks like the plan is to present a very different, non-Japanese version of Shredder. Until we see Fichtner on set we won't know for sure. This also reopens the idea that maybe this Turtles film is going to undergo other significant changes, possibly involving the heroes as aliens. Fichtner joins Megan Fox, Alan Ritchson, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, Noel Fisher, Will Arnett and Danny Woodburn when the film opens on June 6th 2014.