Source: Imgur
This could be the most exciting news I’ve ever heard or the most terrifying depending on the way you look at it. My favorite anime of all time, Cowboy Bebop, will be getting an American live-action television series executive produced by Sunset Inc, the studio responsible for the original animated iteration.
According to Variety, the show will also include the involvement of Tomorrow Studios, a partnership between ITV Studios and Marty Adelstein, as well as Midnight Radio, Becky Clements, and Matthew Weinberg. Midnight Radio consists of Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg. Chris Yost will write the adaptation.
I know that a film adaption of Cowboy Bebop, set to feature Keanu Reeves as lead character Spike Spiegel, was in development hell for the longest amount of time possible due to the scope of the script and the money that would’ve been required to bring it to life, so color me intrigued that the next logical step was apparently to demote it to a television series, where it would probably have even less money to work with? Did I mention the original plan for the film was for it to just be based on the first episode of the anime?
We’ve seen how American adaptions of anime have gone with the likes of Ghost In The Shell and even anime-adjacent properties like Avatar: The Last Airbender, so I’m worried for this project if it ever even gets past the planning stages. Cast will be key in this situation as Cowboy Bebop is a very character driven series that will suffer if strong actors and actresses aren’t picked. And it’ll be a very odd feeling to not hear Steve Blum as Spike.
Such a great anime…one of my favorite as well. This could definitely go either way. Here’s hoping!