Michael Bay has called for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans to "chill."

The filmmaker caused outrage when he recently claimed that the reboot of the project which he will be producing will show the main characters Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael as members of an "alien race," but after vocal opposition from fans he has tried to allay the public's fears.

"Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world. Michael," he wrote on the forum of his site.

One of the most vocal opposers of Michael's plans was Robbie Rist, who voiced Michelangelo in the 1990 live action movie, who took to Facebook to write about his fears that Michael was "sodomizing" the franchise.

"Dear Michael Bay. You probably don't know me but I did some voice work on the first set of movies that you are starting to talk about sodomizing. Look man, I think you have some pretty nifty action ideas (of course on the other side, the minute ANYONE in your movies starts using actual dialog I seem to catch myself nodding off), but seriously, Teenage ALIEN Ninja Turtles? I know believing in mutated talking turtles is kinda silly to begin with but am I supposed to be led to believe there are ninjas from another planet? You know that ninjas are a certain kind of cultural charact.... Oh what the hell am I talking to you for? The rape of our childhood memories continues.... (sic)."