TV

A Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Series Is Coming To Netflix

by Amanda Yeo  29 November 2018
Cowboy Bebop Netflix

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3,2,1 — let’s jam. Netflix has announced a live-action remake of classic sci-fi Western anime Cowboy Bebop, over a decade after talk of an adaptation first began to circulate.

The Cowboy Bebop live-action remake was reported as being in development last year, but it has now been greenlit and given a full series order. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will consist of 10 episodes and involve executive producers from the studio that created the anime. Christopher Yost, who worked on Thor: Ragnarok, will write the first episode, and the director of the original series, Shinichiro Watanabe, will serve as a consultant on the series

The original 26-episode anime premiered in 1998, and was characterised by its distinctive jazz musical style. Set in 2071, the noir space Western follows a group of bounty hunters on the spaceship Bebop, most notably big-haired protagonist Spike Spiegel, a man dogged by his past.

Cowboy Bebop was an engaging mash-up of genres, and introduced many viewers to space westerns long before Firefly‘s Malcolm Reynolds boarded Serenity. It received both critical and audience acclaim, and is still regarded as essential viewing for anime fans.

It’s been a big few days for fans of Netflix and anime. Earlier this week Netflix also announced that it will be bringing the similarly iconic mindscrew mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion to the service next year.

Talk of a live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop has floated around for years, so it’s almost unbelievable that it’s finally happening. Famously, Keanu Reeves had been set to star in a live-action film as Spike Spiegel, but unfortunately, the project never made it out of development. No casting for the new series has been announced yet.

See you soon, space cowboy…