“Cowboy Bebop” Showrunner Talks Expanding The Canon

Netflix has a number of exciting projects on the horizon, but one of the most anticipated has to be their live-action adaptation of the beloved 90’s anime, Cowboy Bepop, which is set to star John Cho (Star Trek) as Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (Marvel’s Luke Cage) as Jet Black, and Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) as Faye Valentine.

And while fans are understandably hyped for this series, there has been some trepidation.

However, Netflix has repeatedly assured audiences that it is their intent to stay as close to the original source material as possible, and that they won’t be contradicting events or making needless changes. And during a recent interview with EW, showrunner Andre Nemec confirmed this intent, and commented to the only desire they have is to expand the story and the brand, specifically stating:

I promise we will never take the original anime away from the purists. It will always exist out there. But I’m very excited about the stories that we’re telling. I believe we’ve done a really nice job of not violating the canon in any direction but merely offering some extra glimpses into the world that was already created.

We got under the skin of who the live-action characters were going to be. I think that the poetic nature of the anime absolutely allowed for us to mine the archetypal nature of the characters and dig out deeper histories that we wanted to explore – and answer some of the questions that the anime leaves you with. I think to just redo the anime will leave an audience hungry for something that they already saw. The anime did an amazing job. We don’t need to serve the exact same meal. I think it would have been disappointing if we did.

This is certainly good to hear, as Hollywood is notorious for getting live-action anime adaptations wrong (see Scarlett Johansson’s Ghost in the Shell), largely due to the insisting on changing or subverting the narrative. It sounds like everyone involved with the show simply wants to honor the property and showcase the story to a new generation of viewers.

The first season of Cowboy Bebop will be ten episodes long and will drop on November 19th, with a trailer to hit soon, likely debuting at this weekend’s TUDUM event by Netflix.