New Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Series Is Coming to Netflix

Netflix has ordered a new live-action Cowboy Bebop series, based on the beloved 1998 anime series of the same name. The forthcoming 10-episode live-action series is a co-production with Los Angeles-based Tomorrow Studios, which in 2017 inked a deal with original studio Sunrise Inc. to develop the U.S. television adaptation.

Set in the year 2071, Cowboy Bebop is described by Netflix as “the jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Radical Ed: a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals.” The original Japanese series ran for 26 episodes and was renowned for its clever blend of cyberpunk, Western and noir influences, topping Paste’s list of the 50 best anime series of all time. The series also inspired a 2001 feature, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, which landed on Paste’s list of the 100 best anime movies of all time.

The new live-action Cowboy Bebop series comes from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol co-writers Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum, plus Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle co-writers Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, all of whom serve as showrunners and executive producers for Midnight Radio. Executive producers also include Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios (Snowpiercer, Good Behavior); Yasuo Miyakawa, Masayuki Ozaki and Shin Sasaki of Sunrise Inc; Tetsu Fujimura and Matthew Weinberg, plus Christopher Yost (Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok), who will write the first episode. Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the original anime, will serve as consultant on the forthcoming live-action series.

The new live-action series does not yet have a release date.