Spider-Man’s Michael Mando slips into a more comfortable mech suit for Netflix’s Gundam

After nearly a half-century of mech suit battles on the long-running anime franchise Mobile Suit Gundam and its many spin-offs, Netflix is taking another stab at a live-action Gundam. The streamer is currently planning to shoot its long-awaited adaptation of the sci-fi epic in April in Australia, and it’s bringing in an actor well-versed in wearable weaponry: Michael Mando. Per Deadline, Mando, who stars as Scorpion in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, will be slipping into another CGI mecha for the film. He’ll be joining a who’s who of potential Amuro Rays or Char Aznables, including fellow Netflix star Noah Centineo, Oppenheimer‘s Jason Clarke, and an actor no one has opinions about, Sydney Sweeney. 

There’s no release date for the film, which has been in development since at least 2018, when Legendary Pictures announced the project. Originally, comics writer Brian K. Vaughn, who created Y: The Last Man and Saga, was hired to write. Then, Legendary hired Sweet Tooth showrunner to write and direct. That’s still the case. This isn’t the first live-action Gundam movie. In 1999, the Canadian made-for-TV movie G-Saviour took the Great White North by storm and still looks great today.