Carlos Morales
The classic space western anime Cowboy Bebop rides again as a live-action series for Netflix
Guess it’s time to announce that Cowboy Bebop, the live-action series, is heading to @Netflix. pic.twitter.com/bKe0d8EKoH
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) November 28, 2018
Otaku’s around the world rejoice a live-action Cowboy Bebop is finally coming your way. Netflix has ordered a live-action adaptation of the anime defining series Cowboy Bebop. This 10- episode series which is being co-produced by Netflix and Tomorrow Studios, who has had this in the works since last year. Showrunners will be Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) along with Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg (Venom and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle). Christopher Yost (Thor: The Dark World and Ragnarok) has written the first episode. And yes that does sound like a lot of white guys but take a deep breath because the good part is Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the original anime will consultant on the project and Yasuo Miyakawa, Masayuki Ozaki, with Shin Sasaki of Sunrise Inc, the studio behind the original series, are also executive producing alongside Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios.
The critically acclaimed Cowboy Bebop was produced in 1998 by Sunrise. Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, with scripts written by Keiko Nobumoto, character designer by Toshihiro Kawamoto, and songs composed by Yoko Kanno, the jazz-infused, genre-bending, space western that often commented on existentialist philosophies is about Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Radical Edward, a group of bounty hunter misfits aboard the spaceship Bebop in the year 2071 who while running from their pasts will save the world, for a price.
While we have all seen Hollywood, for no reason at all, struggle to make a live-action translation of an anime with failures like Dragonball Evolution to Ghost in the Shell and Netflix has not done much better with its own Death Note adaptation. Yet hope is still alive with Watanabe on board and the recent commitments Netflix has made to further expand their catalog with Asian base productions both original and classic along with the streaming services announcement to produce a live-action “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series with original creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko as showrunners. However, the chips may fall I’m excited to see the finished product, which I could almost guarantee a smash hit if Yoko Kano is asked to arrange the music once again.