Hey, space cowboys, Netflix just announced a live-action Cowboy Bebop series

By William Hughes  |  November 28, 2018 | 5:35am
Aux Features TV

Roughly a year ago, we reported on a bit of TV development news that may or may not inflict you with the real folk blues, depending on how well you think hyper-intelligent corgis and roguishly animated space scoundrels can be translated to a more realistic medium: The fact that a live-action adaptation of anime classic Cowboy Bebop was in the works. Tonight, that series (or at least one very much like it) reared its head again, after Netflix announced that it’s acquired a live-action Cowboy Bebop series for itself:

Details on the series are understandably light, although Netflix’s sci-fi-branded NX Twitter account did note that original series creator Shinichiro Watanabe has been brought on to consult, and that the first episode of the series will be written by Thor: Ragnarok scripter Chris Yost.

Fans of the original series, meanwhile, have already begun flipping their shit; live-action adaptations of anime have always been controversial (and frequently awful), and nobody’s especially looking forward to seeing the stylish, jazzy story of down-on-their-luck bounty hunters—much beloved by fans of early Adult Swim—get mangled in translation. (And all this, just when the service had earned itself a little goodwill by announcing that fellow anime classic Neon Genesis Evangelion was also coming to its library today.) Still, who knows? Even doomed underdogs have to win one from time to time.

 
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