It took a long time for the live-action Cowboy Bebop to get off the ground, but we finally have some (seriously awesome) casting news. John Cho will star as the space bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, with Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage‘s Bushmaster) and Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) as his partners Jet Black and Faye Valentine.
The original Cowboy Bebop is a cult favorite among anime fans, a sci-fi noir series about a spacefaring crew of eccentric bounty hunters. Known for its distinctive jazz score and downbeat storytelling, its defining features make it harder to adapt than action-focused anime movies like Ghost in the Shell.
John Cho is about 20 years older than the Spike Spiegel of the original anime, but quite frankly, who cares? Spike’s defining trait is really his sense of cool, and Cho has that in spades. Judging by the response to this casting news on social media, he’s already a very popular choice.
Christopher Yost (Thor: Ragnarok) wrote the first episode of Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop, with Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg as the executive producers. Shinichiro Watanabe, Bebop‘s original creator, is serving as a consultant on the adaptation. Netflix has not confirmed a release date as of yet, and there are still a couple of lead roles left to announce.
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