Shinichirō Watanabe’s sci-fi dramedy anime, Cowboy Bebop, is getting a live action reboot coming to Netflix - here's when it might release and what its story will be. While fans have been nervous about the adaptation’s ability to capture the unique energy of the beloved series, the decision to bring on creator, Shinichirō Watanabe, as a creative consultant and the original composer, Yoko Kanno, to compose the soundtrack for the live-action series signal that the creators want to do right by the anime.
The adaptation of this fan-favorite anime about a group of misfit bounty hunters has gone through some major delays since it was announced in June of 2017. First, John Cho, playing the central role of Spike Spiegel, sustained a serious knee injury during filming that halted production for a solid 7 - 8 months. Then, COVID-19 saw the production company placing all projects on hold for health and safety concerns, especially as filming locations in New Zealand closed for film and television productions during the pandemic.
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However, as things have started to open back up, executive producers Jeff Pinkner and Marty Adelstein and writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach have been teasing fans with information about the series’ progress, and things are looking up for fans of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and the rest of the crew of the Bebop.
Click here to watch Cowboy Bebop Live-Action Series: Everything We Know So Far on YouTube.
Netflix's Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Show Release Date
While the live-action Cowboy Bebop adaptation was originally slated for a 2020 release, most likely in the spring or summer, John Cho’s knee injury set the production back nearly half a year as the actor has needed significant physical therapy and rehabilitation. Then, with New Zealand shutting down amid the Coronavirus pandemic, production has been slowed for quite a while. However, with Cho’s recovery and restrictions lifting, the creators are starting to release more teasers for the series and things seem to be on track for a 2021 release. In fact, writer and executive producer Jeff Pinkner (Fringe and Lost) revealed that work is already underway on scripts for a second season.
While everyone has been tight-lipped about exactly when the release date will be, most likely because they’re still not sure when the first season will be completed and ready for release after the delays, everyone is confident that fans will be able to experience the Cowboy Bebop adaptation some time in 2021 along with many other films that have been delayed due to coronavirus.
Netflix's Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Show Story Details
Cowboy Bebop fans are understandably nervous about seeing a live-action remake of the beloved anime, as the unique combination of science fiction and comedy mixed with a variety of other genres with a wacky jazz theming make it difficult to replicate, and are a large part of the reason Cowboy Bebop still holds up over 20-years later. However, writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach gave a recent interview explaining that the production team’s first priority is to do right by the anime. He told io9, “You can't look at Cowboy Bebop and say, 'Well, it's just a take-off point. We're going to give them different hair and different clothing, and we're gonna call it something different. And it's just sort of gonna be a loose thing.' If you're doing Cowboy Bebop, you're doing Cowboy Bebop. You know? It's kind of like doing Star Wars."
He goes on to talk about how the series is shaping up, having seen a cut of the first episode, and says that he’s extremely pleased with the story and the look of the on-screen universe. The series is taking a lot of stylistic influence from the original anime and is aiming to replicate its unique look and feel. However, despite doing their best to stay as true to the source material as possible, they’re not trying to create a shot-for-shot remake of the original series.
Grillo-Marxuach explains that the live action adaptation will have a slightly different structure. The first season will have 10 episodes, each one-hour long, telling a serialized story, while the anime featured short, twenty-minute episodes: “We’re not going to go one-to-one on all of those stories because we’re also trying to tell the broader story of Spike Spiegel and the Syndicate, Spike Spiegel and Julia, Spike Spiegel and Vicious, and all that. But we are looking at the show and saying, ‘Who are some of the great villains in this show, and how can we put them into this into this broader narrative?’ So that we are telling both of the big stories that Cowboy Bebop tells,” Grillo-Marxuach says.
The adaptation will try to find a balance between maintaining the spirit of the original series and still adapting the story to changing times and audiences, plus the different medium of live-action versus animation. The most notable examples of this are the modernization of Faye Valentine’s outfit, and a reduction in the amount of smoking that will be shown in the live-action show. Overall, however, with the amount of care and attention to detail that the writers, director, and producers are bringing to the project, fans have much to look forward to in this new adaptation of Cowboy Bebop.
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