Seventeen years after publishing its first volume—and eleven after Edgar Wright’s film adaptation shot all the way from “highly anticipated” to “box office bomb” to “cult classic” in the span of a handful of weeks—Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim remains a favorite among a certain class of nerd. Now, it’s being reported that Netflix is working with O’Malley to revive the story of the guy who has to fight his girlfriend’s evil ex’s in order to win her love, and in a particularly apt form: A new anime series the streamer is developing.
Specifically, Netflix is teaming up on the prospective project with Universal studio division UCP, which previously handled its Umbrella Academy show. The series would, presumably, once more trek through Scott Pilgrim’s precious little life, as he weathers attacks from skateboarding movie stars, vegan bassists, and worse in order to win the love of the enigmatic Ramona Flowers. (There’s also a whole bunch of stuff about Canadian culture, video game references, and personal growth crammed in there, too, to be clear.)
O’Malley has been tapped to write for the series; in the event it gets a green light, he’ll serve as a co-showrunner with Are You Afraid Of The Dark? reviver BenDavid Grabinski. Meanwhile, animation duties will be handled by Science SARU, a veteran anime studio you might know from the T0-B1 and Akakiri segments of Disney+’s Star Wars anime project, Visions. Wright, Nira Park, Marc Platt, Jared LeBoff, Adam Seigel, and Michael Bacall—all of whom worked in various capacities on the live-action film—will serve as executive producers.
The shift to anime makes sense for the franchise, of course; part of the appeal of the original Scott Pilgrim graphic novels was in seeing O’Malley translate a whole host of manga and anime influences into a Western sitcom love story. (Also, again: Video game references galore.) No word yet on whether any of the cast from the Wright film—including Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and a whole host of people who proceeded to get super famous right after it would have helped the movie take off—will be reprising their roles for the show.
