Netflix has ordered a 10-episode live-action adaptation of beloved anime Cowboy Bebop, almost exactly 20 years after it first aired in 1998.
Shinichiro Watanabe, who directed the original 26-episode anime and the follow-up film Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, will serve as a consultant, Variety reports. Thor: Ragnarok writer Christopher Yost will write the first episode and executive produce the series.
Cowboy Bebop is a Western noir sci-fi set in 2071. It follows protagonist Spike Spiegel and his eclectic bunch of bounty hunters, with each episode focusing on a different musical theme. The series immediately garnered a cult following after its premiere in the ’90s, becoming the first anime to air on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. It has been lauded as a “gateway series” for Japanese animation as a whole.
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Watanabe isn’t the only OG Bebop creator working with Netflix and partner producer Tomorrow Studios. Yasuo Miyakawa, Masayuki Ozaki, and Shin Sasaki from Sunrise Inc. — the studio that produced the original series — are all executive producing. Rounding out the hefty executive production team are Tomorrow’s Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements; Tetsu Fujimura and Matthew Weinberg; and Andre Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio.
There’s no details yet on potential cast members or a release date. And though fans likely won’t see a live Bebop until 2020, they can rest assured there’s plenty of anime content coming out from Netflix in the near and far future.
The streaming giant recently picked up streaming rights for another iconic anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and also recently announced plans to produce five anime series, including one for Guillermo del Toro‘s 2013 mecha hit Pacific Rim, and one for Netflix’s own sci-fi series Altered Carbon.
