Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shredder
Cosplay at Montreal Comiccon 2015
Publication information
Publisher	Mirage Studios Image Comics Dengeki Comics Archie Comics Dreamwave Productions IDW Publishing
First appearance	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (May 1984)
Created by	Kevin Eastman Peter Laird
In-story information
Alter ego	Oroku Saki Raphael (Image comics) Ch'rell (2003 series) Oroku Yoshi (Mirage Volume 4) Eric Sacks (Nintendo 3DS)
Species	Human
Team affiliations	Foot Clan
Notable aliases	Emperor Shredder (1987 series) Super Shredder Zombie Shredder Joker Shredder
Abilities	Criminal mastermind Master of ninjutsu, martial arts and hand-to-hand combat Utilizes bladed armor

The Shredder is a supervillain and the main antagonist of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles media franchise created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The character first appeared in the comic book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 in May 1984, and has since endured as the archenemy of the turtles and their rat sensei/adoptive father, Splinter.

The Shredder is usually depicted as the alter ego of Oroku Saki, the ruthless leader of a criminal ninja organization known as the Foot Clan. A suit of armor equipped with metal blades and tekko-kagi, loosely based on that of a samurai, serves as the Shredder's visual motif.

In 2009, IGN ranked Shredder as the 39th-greatest comic book villain of all time. The character has been featured in almost every media adaptation of the TMNT franchise, having been portrayed in live-action films by James Saito, François Chau, Tohoru Masamune, and Brian Tee. James Avery, Scottie Ray, Kevin Michael Richardson and Hoon Lee are among the actors that have voiced the character in animated films and television shows.

Concept and creation

Kevin Eastman got the idea for the Shredder's armor from large trapezoidal cheese graters which he envisioned on a villainous character's arms. He then said, "Could you imagine a character with weapons on his arms like this?" Peter Laird suggested the name The Shredder. Although Shredder is often depicted as the main antagonist in various TMNT adaptations, it was never the creators' intention to be the case in his original inception in the Mirage Comics:

In truth, though many TMNT fans who became fans via the first animated series see Shredder as a REALLY important part of an ongoing, long-running battle with the Turtles, I don't think Kevin or I ever did. Yes, he was an important part of their history, and they probably would not have come into existence without his involvement in their world (or more accurately Splinter's world)... but that's about it. Other than bringing Shredder back for "Return to New York" (and the few issues preceding that set that arc up), I never missed him in any of the other TMNT books I worked on.
—Peter Laird

Films

The Shredder was played by James Saito in the first movie and by François Chau in the second, while his immense Super Shredder form was played by professional wrestler Kevin Nash. In all cases, the character was voiced by David McCharen. Oroku Saki (in flashback form) is played by an unknown stuntman. The Shredder's costume was, in the first movie, originally the same as in the original comic, with a red color. However, this was changed in the sequel to a violet color, reflecting the more cartoonish nature of the second film. In both movies, he also had a silver and black cape. In both films, he is served by his second-in-command Tatsu. In the Japanese versions, the Shredder is voiced by Norio Wakamoto (1st movie in VHS version), Hidekatsu Shibata (first movie in the TV version), and Takeshi Watabe (second movie).

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

James Saito as The Shredder in the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

In the first movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi were rival martial artists in Japan and both loved a woman named Tang Shen. Shen, who loved only Yoshi, persuaded him not to fight Saki honorably; instead, they fled for the United States. Saki followed them to New York City; when Yoshi returned home from his construction job he found his beloved Shen lying dead on the floor, he was ambushed and overpowered by Saki. Saki wasted no words and during the struggle, Splinter's cage was broken. Splinter leaped up onto Saki's face, biting and clawing, but the rogue ninja threw him to the floor and took one swipe with his katana, slicing Splinter's ear. After this incident, it was said that Saki is never heard from again. The comic book adaptation of the film retains the original comic book origin story, with Oroku Nagi being slain and Saki coming to America to seek vengeance.

Saki, in his "Shredder" persona, establishes an American branch of the Foot Clan. With the aid of his second-in-command Tatsu, he manipulates and recruits troubled teens as a brutal yet Machiavellian leader and father figure, teaching them ninjitsu to make them into skilled thieves and assassins. Shredder sends the Foot Clan to "silence" April O'Neil when she reports on the Foot Clan's connection to the recent crime wave, inadvertently leading them to the Turtles' hideout when Raphael saves April. Shredder had Splinter kidnapped and imprisoned him in his warehouse hideout, and has the Foot Clan hunt the Turtles. He beats Splinter while interrogating him about how the Turtles learned their fighting techniques.

After the Turtles successfully defeat the Foot Clan in a final assault, Shredder confronts them on a rooftop. He defeats all of the Turtles with his superior skills and threatens Leonardo with his yari to force the others to toss away their weapons. Splinter, freed by Turtles' allies, Danny Pennington and Casey Jones, intervenes and reveals to Shredder that they met years ago, as he was Hamato Yoshi's pet. Shredder unmasks himself, revealing the scars that Splinter gave him, and charges Splinter to impale him. Splinter counters with Michelangelo's nunchaku to send him over the side of the roof. Shredder throws a tanto at Splinter. Splinter caught the knife, but had to let go of the nunchaku that was holding onto the spear, making Shredder fall into a parked garbage truck far below. Casey Jones then activates the crushing mechanism; the viewers are then shown a closeup of Shredder's helmet being crushed, implying his death.

TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

In the second movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, the Shredder was played by François Chau, replacing Saito. In the film, the Turtles believe that since Casey had crushed him in the garbage truck, the Shredder was dead. It is soon revealed that Shredder had survived the crushing and revitalized his Foot Clan to get vengeance on the Turtles. After finding the Foot "fallback" headquarters in a junkyard, Tatsu was asking who would challenge him to cover for Shredder until Shredder appeared. Tatsu allowed Shredder to lead the Foot Clan. Shredder sent a member of the Foot to follow April, hoping to find the Turtles through her. When April's team was doing a report on T.G.R.I. in New Jersey, April's camera operator/Foot Clan member Freddy found some mutated dandelions and sent one to the Shredder. He then orders Tatsu to obtain a sample of the T.G.R.I. mutagen that mutated the Turtles, as well as kidnap researcher Jordan Perry. Using the last mutagen and Perry's research, the Shredder creates his own mutants, Tokka and Rahzar, from a stolen snapping turtle and a brown wolf respectively. Though initially enraged at their infant-like intelligence, he soon plays it to his advantage by manipulating the mutants as they imprinted him as their surrogate parent.

After a failed attempt to kill the Turtles in the junkyard using a captured Raphael, Shredder unleashed Tokka and Rahzar onto a city street to "have fun" and destroy it. The Foot spy then gave April a message for the Turtles: that the Shredder would turn the mutants loose on Central Park next if they did not accede to a rematch at the construction site. After the Turtles de-mutate the two mutants (with help from Perry) and defeat Tatsu in a nightclub, the Shredder appears and threatens to mutate an innocent woman with a small reserve mutagen vial (the canister was knocked away by the Turtles' new human ally, Keno). Before he can mutate her, he is stopped when the Turtles play a keytar at full volume, sending the Shredder flying through a window from the force of a blown speaker. When the Turtles follow him outside on a pier, they discover that the Shredder has used the mutagen vial on himself. He is transformed into a massive "Super Shredder", an almost mindless giant-mutant being with immense superhuman strength. During his fight with the Turtles, Super Shredder knocks down the pier's pilings in a mindless rage, which then collapses onto him with the Turtles falling into the water below. Though the Turtles survive, the Shredder meets his demise from getting crushed by the destroyed pieces of the pier.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) and TMNT (2007)

The Shredder did not appear in the third film but is shown briefly at the beginning of the fourth film to help give the backstory of the Turtles, and his helmet that he wore in the 1990 film is visible on Splinter's shelf of mementos at the end of the movie. The possibility of his return is also strongly hinted at the end of the film by Karai. However, the established storyline was abandoned in favor of the 2014 reboot.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Japanese American actor Tohoru Masamune portrayed the Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Initially, William Fichtner was intended to portray a Caucasian version of the Shredder, with the anglicized real name of Eric Sacks, instead of Oroku Saki. This idea was abandoned late in production in favor of featuring a Shredder of authentic Japanese ancestry, and the film went through re-shoots to change Fichtner's character of Sacks into being the Shredder's student. The change came too late to alter the film's Nintendo 3DS tie-in video game, and Sacks remains the Shredder in it. In contrast to much of the brand's history, Sacks, not Shredder, is the character connected to the Turtles' origins, having created them alongside April O'Neil's father; the Shredder (never referred to with any name other than his codename) has no connection to Splinter or the Turtles, and while he is shown to have scars on his face, it is not revealed how he suffered them.

In the earliest stages of development for the film, Shredder was reimagined as "Colonel Schrader", the military leader of the black-ops unit "The Foot", revealed later in the script to be a yellow-skinned, red-eyed alien with the ability to sprout spikes. This idea was dropped after Evan Daugherty was hired to rewrite the script in early 2013.

In the film, Shredder is the leader of the Foot Clan, who is terrorizing New York City. After a vigilante stops the Foot Clan, Shredder orders the Foot to take hostages down the subway in order to lure the vigilante out. Later in the film, Shredder's adopted son, Eric Sacks, informs Shredder that the vigilante is in fact four mutated Turtles who are test subjects of Project Renaissance, a science experiment of April O'Neil's late father. Sacks give Shredder an armed suit and a helmet, the latter and the Foot Clan attack the Turtles' lair, where he defeats Splinter and kidnaps three Turtles after Raphael was presumed dead. Sacks drain the Turtles' blood in order to create mutagen so that he can complete his and Shredder's plan: the latter will release a virus across the city and Sacks will sell the mutagen as a cure for the disease, making him even richer. As Shredder prepares to release the virus, the Turtles escape and confront him. Although he nearly defeats them, the Turtles were able to conquer Shredder with the help of April, which causes him to fall from the building on which he stood, but he survives and is shown to have a sample of the mutagen.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

Brian Tee portrayed Shredder in the 2016 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. At the beginning of the movie, the Foot Clan, led by a scientist named Baxter Stockman, attempts to help Shredder escape from prison. Although the turtles try to prevent the escape, Stockman was able to help Shredder escape using a teleportation device. But Shredder is hijacked mid-teleport and ends up in a place called Dimension X. There, he meets Krang, who gives Shredder a mutagen canister in exchange for a promise to find the three components of a machine that Krang sent to Earth long ago, which when united will open a portal to his dimension. Shredder returns to New York City and recruits two criminals named Bebop and Rocksteady and has Stockman use Krang's mutagen to transform them into powerful animal mutants- a warthog and rhinoceros. Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady find the components in a museum in New York and in a jungle in Brazil. Shredder and Stockman unite the components, creating a portal to Krang's dimension. Shredder betrays Stockman and has his men take him away, but upon entering the Technodrome, Krang immediately betrays Shredder, freezing him and locking him away with his collection of other defeated foes.

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)

Andrew Kishino voices Shredder in the crossover animated film Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the film, Shredder allies his forces with Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins to build a machine designed to transform Gotham's citizens into unhinged mutants. In exchange for his assistance, Ra's promises Shredder access to one of his Lazarus Pits, which would grant him eternal life. When he and the Foot Clan try to steal a cloud seeder from Wayne Enterprises, he ends up fighting Batman and barely comes out victorious after using an ancient technique.

Later, he fights Batman once more when the Turtles and the Bat-Family arrive at Ace Chemicals to stop him and Ra's from activating the machine. Though he gains the upper hand on the Dark Knight once again, he is thrown off when Batman says "Cowabunga" and gains assistance from Raphael. Batman defeats Shredder in the fight. After Michaelangelo and Donatello destroy the machine, the debris sends him into a vat of chemicals as the plant explodes. In the post-credits scene, he is revealed to have survived the explosion and now strongly resembles the Joker.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

The Shredder makes a silent cameo appearance in the post-credits scene of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, where TCRI executive Cynthia Utrom plans to hire him to recapture the Ninja Turtles.

Video games

As the original TMNT video games are mostly based on the 1987 cartoon, Shredder is often based on his first cartoon incarnation. He usually executes some plan to provoke the Turtles into retaliating and defeat them; these include kidnapping April O'Neil and stealing the Statue of Liberty. Shredder is usually the last boss in the games.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES, 1989): Shredder is the final boss. He is found at the end of the Technodrome level. He causes the Turtles to lose roughly half their energy if he touches them, and has a gun that can de-mutate them, which instantly kills them. He wears a red costume like in the Mirage comics.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade, 1989): Once again, Shredder is the final boss and is found at the end of the Technodrome level. He is armed with a sword, and has the ability to clone himself (the exact number of clones is one more than the number of Turtles attacking him in the arcade version). Shredder and his clones also have the ability to shoot lightning bolts from a device on the helmet, which de-mutate the Turtles they hit, killing them. When Shredder or one of his clones is close to death, his helmet falls off, a unique occurrence in the game series.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (1990): This game was the first one not to feature Shredder as the final boss. Instead, Shredder is the boss of the penultimate stage, which is set in a river. It is also the first game in which Shredder does not have the ability to de-mutate the Turtles. His only attack is a sword swipe, but he can teleport if hit. The final boss is Krang.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions (1991): In this PC game, Shredder fights the turtles in his Manhattan hideout, decorated in a Japanese style. His appearance is based on the Mirage comic version.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (1992): This game is the first to feature both a battle against Shredder and a second one against a mutated Super Shredder. The first battle takes place at the end of the Technodrome level, which is the sixth of the eight levels of the game. In this battle, Shredder uses a sword to attack the Turtles. Shredder later returns as the final boss of the game, on the stage set in Krang's spacecraft. This time, he mutates himself into Super Shredder, much as he did in the second movie which had been released earlier the same year (1991). Super Shredder has two superpowers, the ability to call down lightning, and the ability to shoot fireballs. These fireballs can de-mutate the Turtles, but unlike other games, this is not an instant kill.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers (1991): A sequel to Fall of the Foot Clan, this game also features Shredder as a regular level boss and Krang as the final boss. He does not have the ability to de-mutate the Turtles, but he does have a wider variety of attacks than in the previous Game Boy game. Shredder returns later in his mutated Super Shredder form, as a sub-level boss of the final Technodrome level. However, in this incarnation, his only super-power is the ability to teleport elsewhere on the screen. He attacks the Turtles using a sword.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (1991): Shredder is again the final boss of the game, and found in the Technodrome. However, this time, he is not preceded by a Technodrome level. Instead, the Turtles fight through a Starbase level in the future (2100 AD) with Krang as boss, then teleport to the Technodrome in the present (1991 in the arcade game and 1992 in the SNES version) for the final confrontation. Shredder attacks with a sword, and can fire energy attacks. In the SNES port of the game, Shredder begins the battle by mutating himself into Super Shredder and has the added superpowers of super-speed movement, fire ground attacks, ice air attacks, and a de-mutating fireball which costs a turtle a life. The SNES port also added a Technodrome level earlier in the game, which leads to a battle with a regular Shredder. In this battle, Shredder is in a kind of battle tank, armed with a machine gun and claws. The player views the action over Shredder's shoulder inside the tank, and the only way to cause damage is to hurl the never-ending waves of Foot Soldiers toward the screen and into the tank.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (1992): This game uses a Super Shredder similar to the one in Turtles in Time. His attacks are roughly the same.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (1993): Unlike its two predecessors, Fall of the Foot Clan and Back from the Sewers, this game does feature Shredder as the final boss. However, this time Shredder has become Cyber Shredder, half-man, and half-machine. This form of Shredder possessed deadly kick moves and energy ball attacks, as well as being the only boss in the game with two life meters, as the meter instantly refills after it is drained the first time.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (1993): This is the first game in which Shredder is not a boss but instead a regular playable character. Furthermore, his costume is based on the Mirage comics version. Finally, in the SNES incarnation of this game, he appears under the name Cyber-Shredder, but there is no indication that he has become a cybernetic being as in Radical Rescue.

After a 10-year hiatus, a new series of TMNT games was initiated. These new games are based on the 2003 cartoon series, and likewise, Shredder in the games is the same as in the cartoon.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Shredder appears as the final boss. The Turtles face him on the helicarrier at the top of the Foot Helicarriers; he wields the Sword of Tengu in this fight. Shredder's combo attacks are quick and nearly continuous. When half of his health bar has been depleted, his attacks become much faster. There is also a secret final boss in which the player faces Shredder as Oroku Saki. His combos are much quicker and deadlier, and he also has a temporary powered-up state.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus (2004): The game begins a short while before the end of the previous game, and Shredder is encountered by the Turtles in the second stage of the game; however, he is not fought by the player, only in a cutscene. As in the cartoon, Shredder is defeated, but he survives the assault on his headquarters. Shredder resurfaces in the TCRI building later on, but once again, the player does not directly fight him; the main goal of the mission being to evacuate the Utroms back to their home planet. He is seemingly killed in the destruction of the TCRI building, but he once again survives. In a subplot exclusive to the game, he is detailed as being a mass murderer of Utroms on their homeworld, and he gave Utrom mercenary Slashurr a permanent scar. He later wiped Slashurr's memory and employed him to kill the Turtles. However, Slashurr eventually remembers his past, and with the Turtles, battles Shredder and the Foot on his ship. The Turtles eventually defeat Shredder once again. In the Battle Nexus fighting tournament mode, Shredder appears as the final boss of the Foot Fight tournament, though the nature of these tournaments when it comes to the game's canon is questionable.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee (2005): Shredder appeared as a playable character and opponent in three forms—his standard armor, without the armor (as Oroku Saki), and a golden "Mega" Shredder.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare (2005) The third chapter of the game, "Exodus", deals directly with the Turtles thwarting the Foot's efforts. As in the third-season finale, the Turtles and Splinter battle the Foot at their headquarters, and follow the Shredder aboard his starship. They nearly sacrifice themselves to kill Shredder as well, but the Utroms rescue them, and exile Shredder to a distant ice asteroid forever. Shredder is also encountered in the dark future as one of the final bosses of the Nightmare chapter of the game.
• TMNT (2007): In the console versions of the 2007 movie-based game, Shredder appears as a boss in a flashback-within-a-flashback (as the events of the game are told to Splinter after their occurrence). The armor of Shredder in this game is based on the 2003 cartoon series version.
• TMNT: Smash Up (2009): Shredder is a playable character in the PS2 and Wii fighting game. He appears in both his Utrom Shredder and Cyber Shredder forms.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2013): Shredder appears as both the penultimate and final boss of the game. He recruits Baxter Stockman to build a new helmet for him using stolen Krang technology, which gives him telekinetic powers, including the ability to fly. Shredder is first fought in his lair when the Turtles come to save April and learn about his scheme. After escaping, he has fought again in the Krangs' secret underground facility, this time donning his new helmet built by Stockman. He is ultimately defeated by the Turtles, who destroy his helmet, leaving him to swear revenge.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014): The Nintendo 3DS game based on the 2014 film, Shredder, who is actually Eric Sacks, appears as the final boss. However, after defeating him, it is revealed that it was all an illusion created by Baxter Stockman, to allow the real Shredder to escape.
• Nickelodeon Kart Racers (2018): Shredder appears as a non-playable background character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tracks, based on the 2012 incarnation.
• Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix (2020): Shredder appears as a playable driver, once again based on his 2012 appearance.
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (2021): Shredder appears as a playable character as part of a free update, based on his 1987 appearance.
• Shredder appears as a boss in the 2022 beat-'em-up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. He's first fought in his usual form, then appears again as the final boss as Super Shredder, a mutated, ultimate form affected by the mutagen.

Other appearances

In the anime adaptation Mutant Turtles: Choujin Densetsu-hen, the backstory from the original cartoon was preserved. Unlike the rest of the main cast, Shredder's appearance was changed to match the Supermutants Shredder toy that was being sold at that time. The manga explained this by saying his original outfit was destroyed in a battle with the Turtles and Krang created the new armor for him. Shredder also gains the ability to transform into the dragon Devil Shredder using the Mutanite crystals he stole from the Neutrinos. With the energy from the evil sprite Dark Mu, he was later able to transform into the gigantic Dark Devil Shredder. In the second volume of the anime, he gets his Tiger Spirit Metal Mutant armor. He was voiced by Kiyoyuki Yanada.

Shredder also made a guest appearance in an episode of the YouTube show Death Battle. In the episode, his weapons and abilities were analyzed against X-Men villain Silver Samurai. In the end, Shredder proved himself the better fighter and beat his opponent.

Shredder appears as a limited-time purchasable character for the KorTac faction in the first-person shooter video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. This version of the character is based on the original comic book appearance.

A Colonel Ch'rell appears in the IDW comics as a member of the Utrom military, kept in stasis in the Technodrome.

In the 2022 direct-to-streaming Disney+ film Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, an arm from the 2003 Shredder appears as one of the components in Sweet Pete's amalgamated form. Jim Cummings, who was an understudy for Shredder in the 1987 series, briefly reprised his role and provides Sweet Pete's voice during his fight with Chip and Dale, credited as "Shredder Arm".

See also

In Spanish: Shredder para niños