Filmmaker Javier Grillo-Marxuach (“Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance”) is serving as writer/co-executive producer on Netflix’s upcoming live-action adaptation of the iconic anime series “Cowboy Bebop” and wants to reassure fans the production team isn’t holding back.
Speaking with io9, Grillo-Marxuach immediately dismissed the rumor about Ein being a husky when in fact it will be a corgi just like in the comics. He says his co-writer Karl Taro Greenfeld and he follow the rule: “We ain’t playing Bebop, Bebop is playing us.” He then goes on to elaborate further:
“You can’t look at Cowboy Bebop and say, ‘Well, it’s just a take-off point. We’re going to give them different hair and different clothing, and we’re gonna call it something different. And it’s just sort of gonna be a loose thing. If you’re doing Cowboy Bebop, you’re doing Cowboy Bebop. You know? It’s kind of like doing Star Wars.”
The series will boast outlandish sets and costumes along with stars John Cho as Spike Spiegel, the leader of a group of intergalactic bounty hunters which includes Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, and Alex Hassell as Vicious. Grillo-Marxuach says he has already seen a cut of the first episode, and raves about it.
He also says it won’t be a straight one-to-one adaptation and will have its own narrative due to the different pacing and a desire to be a new piece of the canon as opposed to being a remake/replacement of the original show. The longer narrative also allows a broadening of Spike’s story:
“You’ve got a show where you have 26 episodes that are full of very colorful villains, very colorful stories, very colorful adversaries, bounties, and all of that. We’re not going to go one-to-one on all of those stories because we’re also trying to tell the broader story of Spike Spiegel and the Syndicate, Spike Spiegel and Julia, Spike Spiegel and Vicious, and all that. But we are looking at the show and saying, ‘Who are some of the great villains in this show, and how can we put them into this into this broader narrative?’ So that we are telling both of the big stories that Cowboy Bebop tells.”
Grillo-Marxuach also says Faye’s revealing costume is being toned down as “we need to have a real human being wearing that”. The show is also committing to diversity in front of the camera, saying: “Spike Spiegel has to be Asian. Like, you can’t Scarlett Johansson this s–t. We are making a show that takes place in a future that is multicultural, that is extraordinarily integrated and where those things are the norm.”
It’s not clear when filming on the project, which is shooting in New Zealand, will resume but the writers are reportedly already working on season two while more seasons could follow. The series is being executive produced by Christopher Yost, Jeff Pinkner, and Andre Nemec.
