Earlier today, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Netflix has cast four of the main cast members for the upcoming Cowboy Bebop live-action TV series. According to the publication, the show will star the following:
- Spike Spiegel: John Cho
- Jet Black: Mustafa Shakir
- Faye Valentine: Daniella Pineda
- Vicious: Alex Hassell
The Hollywood Reporter describes Spike Spiegel as “an impossibly cool bounty hunter with a deadly smile, a wry wit, and style to spare.” They note that he travels the solar system with Jet in search of “the future’s most dangerous bounties with a combination of charm, charisma — and deadly Jeet Kune Do.”
Jet Black is described as a jazz fan and Captain of The Bebop, as well as “one of the few honest cops in the solar system before an ultimate betrayal robbed him of all that he loved, forcing him into a vagabond life of hunting bounties to put food on the table.”
Faye Valentine is described as “a bold, brash and unpredictable bounty hunter,” who suffers from amnesia after years of cryostasis. “Faye does whatever it takes to survive,’ according to the publication, “[w]hether she’s lying, stealing, or just being a thorn in Spike and Jet’s side.”
Vicious is portrayed as an individual who “thoroughly enjoys a good kill,” who is “also Spike Spiegel’s ex-partner and arch-enemy,” as well as “the Syndicate’s most infamous hitman.”
The live-action Cowboy Bebop TV series is is a joint production between Netflix and Tomorrow Studios. Chris Yost (Thor: Ragnarok, Max Steel) is writing the adaptation, while series creator Shinichiro Watanabe will serve as a consultant.
The series was originally announced in the pages of Variety in June 2017. At the time, they reported that Japanese Studio Sunrise, who created the original anime series, are attached as executive producers. Midnight Radio, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, and Matthew Weinberg are also attached as executive producers on the project.
Tomorrow Studios is a partnership between ITV Studios and Marty Adelstein. Midnight Radio is a collective, which consists of Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg.
Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 series from studio Sunrise. Shinichirō Watanabe (Space Dandy, Samurai Champloo) directed the project, which featured character designs by Toshihiro Kawamoto (Blood Blockade Battlefront, Wolf’s Rain). Keiko Nobumoto (Tokyo Godfathers, Macross Plus) was in charge of series composition.
Yoko Kanno (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Macross Frontier, Space Dandy) scored the show’s soundtrack.
Bandai Entertainment originally released the title in North America on VHS and DVD. Cowboy Bebop was the first anime title to air on Adult Swim in the United States, and has aired numerous times since that initial broadcast. Though Bandai closed its doors in 2012, the show has since been rescued by Funimation. They describe Cowboy Bebop as:
The Bebop crew is just trying to make a buck. This motley lot of intergalactic loners teams up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. Spike is a hero whose cool facade hides a dark and deadly past. The pilot Jet is a bruiser of a brute who can’t wait to collect the next bounty. Faye Valentine is a femme fatale prone to breaking hearts and separating fools from their money. Along for the ride are the brilliant-but-weird hacker Ed and a super-genius Welsh Corgi named Ein.
On their own, any one of them would be likely to get lost in the sprawl of space, but together, they’re the most entertaining gang of bounty hunters in the year 2071.
Funimation currently offers Cowboy Bebop on several streaming services, including FunimationNow and Hulu.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
