Netflix has revealed a first look at the upcoming live-action remake of the classic space opera anime series Cowboy Bebop and announced a release date: November 19th.
The original, 26-episode anime series debuted in 1998 in Japan and has remained an influential classic ever since. Set in the year 2071 after humanity colonized much of the solar system, the show follows a team of bounty hunters on a ship called the Bebop, led by former-assassin Spike Spiegel.
Netflix announced that it had picked up the live-action series back in 2018, and later announced its cast: John Cho (Spike) Mustafa Shakir (Jet Black, Spike’s cybernetic bounty hunter partner), Daniella Pineda (Faye Valentine, a sometimes-rival bounty hunter), and Alex Hassell (Vicious, a dangerous gangster from Spike’s past). The project began production in 2019, only to be delayed after Cho was injured, and again with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series resumed production in September 2020, and wrapped up back in March.
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Meet Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) in Cowboy Bebop, premiering November 19, only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/nmapVDUZvJ
— Cowboy Bebop (@bebopnetflix) August 23, 2021
We’ve been expecting the series to drop sometime this year; during its Geek Week, Netflix revealed that the series would debut this fall, along with news that the composer for the original anime series, Yoko Kanno, would be scoring the soundtrack for the new series.
Spike Spiegel: Just a humble bounty hunter.
Meet Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) in Cowboy Bebop, premiering November 19, only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/sYGfdCcsL7
— Cowboy Bebop (@bebopnetflix) August 23, 2021
Today’s announcement finally gives us a date for when we’ll get to check out the series, as well as our first look at what the show will actually look like. While the streaming service hasn’t released a trailer for the project just yet, the first eight images look as though they’ve nailed the look of the entire cast: Cho as Spike looks utterly perfect (as does Ein!), and the world looks suitably battered. Hopefully, we’ll get a trailer before too much longer.
The series debuts worldwide on Netflix on November 19th.
