Pizza Hut Now Delivering Underground To Tie In With ‘TMNT: Mutant Mayhem’

With the Ninja Turtles coming back to theaters, their signature favorite food is making its way beneath the streets of the Big Apple. As a tie-in with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Pizza Hut is now offering delivery to the New York subway system.

CNN reports that the restaurant chain is offering subway delivery to select customers as part of a promotion tying in with the upcoming CG animated film. By texting a turtle emoji to a special phone number, customers can have pizza delivered to designated drop-off zones in New York’s extensive series of subway stations – not exactly the sewers, where the Turtles traditionally dwell, but considerably more sanitary. “Pizza Hut and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have a longstanding history that goes back to the ’90s. Bringing the two together again for a new generation was a no-brainer,” says Pizza Hut chief marketing officer Lindsay Morgan. The promotional stunt also ties in with Pizza Hut’s Ninja Turtles augmented reality game, in which customers can battle mutant villains to protect their pizzas.

Turtles and Pizza: A Match Made in Pepperoni Heaven

As native New Yorkers, the Ninja Turtles have frequently been shown to be pizza connoisseurs; this largely stems not from their grim-and-gritty origins in Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird‘s black-and-white comic books, but in the lighter and goofier 1987 cartoon series. Their affinity for pizza has carried over into nearly every subsequent adaptation of the franchise. This may have reached its apex in the franchise’s second live-action film, 1991’s TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze, which opens with a montage of diners all over New York enjoying a slice; it later features Michelangelo wielding pepperoni nunchucks, and noted thespian David Warner declaring himself to be in “pepperoni heaven”. As one might expect, this frequently results in extensive product placement and tie-ins whenever the franchise gets a promotional push. Pizza Hut has frequently been at the forefront of that, running an ad on VHS copies of 1990’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action movie, and sponsoring the touring Coming Out of Their Shells stunt show; 2014’s Michael Bay-produced TMNT film prominently featured a couch made out of Pizza Hut boxes in the crime-fighters’ underground lair.

RELATED: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Cookbook’ Is Everything 5-Year-Old Me Ever Wanted

Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem is the franchise’s second animated theatrical film. It was directed by Jeff Rowe, and will star newcomers Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr, Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon as the Turtles, Jackie Chan as Splinter, Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil, and a star-studded supporting cast that includes the likes of Paul Rudd, Ice Cube, Rose Byrne, Post Malone, and John Cena as a bevy of mutant friends and foes.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem hits theaters on August 2, 2023. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch Pizza Hut delivers a pizza to a surprised subway commuter.