Netflix has announced that the legendary anime series Cowboy Bebop, will be adapted to a live-action ten episode series. Tomorrow Studios will be co-producing the series and has been working to bring the project to fruition for the last year.
Tomorrow Studios is a partnership between American TV producer Marty Adelstein and Sunrise Inc., the company who produced the original anime series.
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
The original anime television series was first released in 1998, and follows the lives of a bounty hunter crew aboard the spaceship Bebop in the year 2071. Throughout the series 26 jazz-inspired episodes, heavy themes are present from both noir and western films. With the main characters Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Radical Ed — each trying to escape their past, begrudginly confront their fears and face the difficulty of loneliness.
Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the original anime, has been brought on to serve as a consultant on the project. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol co-writers Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum along with Venom and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle co-writers Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg will server as executive producers. The first episode is written by Christopher Yost (Thor: The Dark World and Ragnarok).
Over the last year Netflix has made several substantial moves to push into the anime genre and court more fans to its platform. Two days ago the company announced that the legendary anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion would be coming onboard. And last year they released a poorly received live-action film based off of the popular anime/manga series Death Note.
Streaming service and content distributor Crunchyroll focuses entirely on anime and manga, and has over 40 million active users. So Netflix will have to continue to make big moves within the genre to captivate users of Crunchyroll and fans of the eastern based genre.
There’s no release data available for the series at this time.
Join the AIPT Patreon
Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:
- ❌ Remove all ads on the website
- 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
- 📗 Access to our monthly book club
- 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
- 💥 And more!
