As far as bad guys go Krang from TMNT is one of the grossest and creepiest that’s come along in a while. In the cartoons his voice was hard to take but it was eventually embraced by fans since it was the original and it was considered something special. But the character was, quite literally, all brain and had a form that wasn’t all that physically imposing despite being fully disgusting. For all that however Krang was a very serious threat since he had superior intelligence but not a lot of wisdom to go around since the Turtles did end up winning more often than not and even with Shredder as an ally Krang had a few problems that couldn’t be ironed out when it came to his nefarious plans. Of course being a cartoon bad guy he was always fated to lose even if he managed to get the upper hand now and again.
Here are a few things that you might not have known about Krang.
10. Originally he was the disembodied brain of an evil warlord.
That sounds disturbing in and of itself since it almost sounds like something that came out of Robocop 2 when the main bad guy was nothing but a brain and a stem. Remember that? Anyway, Krang’s origin has changed a bit throughout the history of time with the Turtles and has finally settled on one particular backstory that people seem to accept as it’s not too challenging and is in a way more fitting.
9. His first appearance was in 1987.
It’s fair to say that a lot of people didn’t know how to take Krang since he was a very weird choice for a kids’ cartoon and was not altogether pleasant to look at even despite the fact that he was animated. It was the thought perhaps that a fully functioning brain would be talking and moving about on its own that really got a lot of people wondering just what the producers were thinking.
8. There was a good reason for his inclusion.
If anyone remembers the original TMNT comic it was pretty violent and included a lot of material that just wouldn’t be able to make it into a daytime cartoon. Krang was invented because by necessity he has to use a robot body, and the Turtles beating up on a robot is far more acceptable than it would be to see them chopping and bludgeoning a living being to death. With a robot it’s just property damage, while with a living being it might seem like murder.
7. He comes from Dimension X.
Dimension X is an entirely different galaxy that is highly militarized and is not a very nice place. It is why Krang is the way he is and explains a lot about his mindset when it comes to light.
6. There’s a debate over whether the android body or the bubble walker is better.
Some people think that the bubble walker, basically a dual-legged device with a clear dome over the top, is cooler and easier to use when it comes to mobility. But the android body is just sheer size and power, despite not being quite as nimble or as able to move through smaller spaces.
5. His first film appearance was in TMNT: Out of the Shadows.
There was an idea to bring him into the first Turtles movie but it was scrapped since they wanted to tell the story of the Turtles and the Shredder first without having anything else butting in. By the time the second movie rolled around however people were already formulating their opinions and it didn’t go over so well.
4. He appears to be part of one species but supposedly isn’t.
There was a rumor that he wasn’t part of the Utrom species but it’s been determined now that he is. This rumor was brought up years before when it was undecided just what story would be used for Krang’s origin.
3. He was voiced by a different actor in Out of the Shadows.
Patrick Fraley voiced Krang back in 1987 and people were actually looking forward to some old school when they went to see Out of the Shadows. Instead they got the voice of Pat Garrett as the voice. He wasn’t too bad really but he was a lot different than the whiny, nasally sound that a lot of people had grown used to back in the day.
2. Shredder had the android body that Krang used built for him.
This was in exchange for Krang allowing Shredder to use his ship as the hideout and base of operations for the Foot clan. The two weren’t exactly a good pair but they did tend to at least try and take down the Turtles together.
1. His goal was to terraform the earth to make it more like his planet.
That’s why his ship, vehicle, whatever, was moving all the time, it was attempting to remake the earth into a place more like Krang’s planet.
As villains go he’s easily one of the most disturbing.
