Film reviewer Price of Reason seems to believe that Seth Rogen made Splinter, the mentor and father figure to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a gay man. As Bounding Into Comics reports, Price of Reason wrote this about the new Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: “To add insult to injury, at the end of the movie Splinter is seen making out with Scumbug and then professing his love for Scumbug who he seemingly enters into a relationship with.” This was written after the author likewise bashes Rogen’s portrayal of the Turtles.

Price of Reason continues to explain their reasoning for going against the notion of Splinter being gay, a topic that is now trending all over the internet, specifically on Twitter.

“Now that in and of itself is already out of character for Splinter as we’ve known him for years as it just doesn’t seem like something he would do. But then later after researching the character posters for this movie and also consulting with Tom from Midnight’s Edge, I’ve come to the conclusion that they’ve decided to present Splinter in this movie as an LGBT character, a creative decision that I disagree with since he’s never been presented that way in the 40 years that this franchise has existed.”

But is it true? Twitter certainly seems convinced, thanks to YouTuber Keemstar, but new evidence has suggested that Splinter’s homosexuality is nothing more than a mere marketing mistake. Cosmic Book News writes a contradicting report that confirms the question was posed to Reddit, where one user denied the claims, thereafter offering an explanation on the matter.

“There’s a scene with splitter and scumbug. No voice actor. Promo pic says “scumbug as himself” but I thought the movie portrayed them as female. Leather head and wingnut are female in the movie. I maybe wrong on assuming they were female, but I thought it was a funny scene.”

Director Jeff Rowe eventually spoke out on the trending topic to clear the air, confirming that Scumbug was always a female cockroach, and the marketing team made a mistake about the “Scumbug as Himself” poster (pictured below):

“That was a marketing mistake, and we were furious about it. They put that out, I don’t know who did that or how that happened, but we were immediately like, ‘That’s not true. Don’t put that in the world,’ and that will now be on the internet forever. But that was never the intention. That was never the character. We always imagined her to be a female cockroach. And that one poster was a slip up.”

Scumbug is originally male in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic series, but the character’s gender was changed for the Rowe/Rogen collaboration. Considering that the TMNT fans lost their minds over the creators racebending April O’Neill, it could have been a slight exaggeration by a viewer that led to the start of these rumors.

Not that it would matter all that much if Splinter was gay, but we know how the internet feels about “woke” content nowadays.

Read our review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, currently showing in theaters.

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