Netflix’s Live-Action ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Adds Six To The Cast
Netflix has found more cast for its upcoming live-action adaptation of the hugely popular anime ‘Cowboy Bebop‘, based on the original Japanese animated series.
Based on the worldwide phenomenon from Sunrise Inc., ‘Cowboy Bebop’ is 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. They’ll even save the world… for the right price.
Announced as joining the cast today are Geoff Stults (‘Little Fires Everywhere’, ‘Stargirl’), Tamara Tunie (‘Law & Order: SVU’, ‘Emergence’), Rachel House (‘Thor Ragnarok’, ‘New Legends of Monkey’), Ann Truong (‘Strike Back’, ‘Romper Stomper’), Hoa Xuande (‘Ronny Chieng: International Student’, ‘Top of the Lake’) and Mason Alexander Park (Broadway Tour – ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’).
They join the previously announced cast of John Cho (‘Star Trek’ movies) who plays Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (‘The Deuce’, ‘Luke Cage’) as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda (‘Jurassic World’ franchise, ‘What/If’, ‘The Detour’) as Faye Valentine, Alex Hassell (‘The Boys’, ‘The Red Sea Diving Resort’) as Vicious and Elena Satine (‘The Gifted’, ‘Strange Angel’) as Julia.
Geoff Stults is set to play Chalmers, the epitome of a Western lawman. He is also Jet Black’s former co-detective in the ISSP’s Homicide Division. He wears a chronic smile that makes you want to punch him square in the face… especially Jet. And that’s only partly because Chalmers is dating his ex-wife…
Tamara Tunie portrays Ana, the proprietor of the hottest underground bluesy jazz club on Mars. And while she acts as a surrogate mom to Spike, there is nothing warm and cuddly about her. Cool and intense, Ana is definitely not a woman to be trifled with.
Mason Alexander Park will play Gren, Ana’s right-hand person. They run the front of the house for Ana’s jazz club. As capable with their wit as a glock, as confident in a dress as a suit, they are a Bowie-esque embodiment of 22nd century handsome and seductive beauty.
Rachel House plays Mao, the Capo of the Syndicate’s “White Tigers” family. Despite, or perhaps because of, her blue collar background, Mao is more cunning, adept, crafty and deadly than her counterparts.
Ann Truong and Hoa Xuande are playing twins Shin & Lin, Vicious’ “dressed to kill” Syndicate henchman. Despite being fearful of their volatile boss, they are fiercely loyal to Vicious in his quest (for reasons we have yet to understand) to take down Spike Spiegel.
The show is a co-production between Netflix and Tomorrow Studios (‘Aquarius’, ‘Snowpiercer’), with Netflix will handling the physical production. Andre Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg of production company Midnight Radio (‘Zoo’) will serve as showrunners and exec producers. Yasuo Miyakawa, Masayuki Ozaki, and Shin Sasaki of Sunrise Inc, who made the animated series, will join them as exec producers, along with Tetsu Fujimura and Matthew Weinberg. Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the original anime, will be a consulting producer.
Christopher Yost, writer of ‘Thor: The Dark World’, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, ‘Star Wars Rebels’, and a bunch of Marvel animations, will pen the first episode, and also exec produce.
The original 26 episode ‘Cowboy Bebop’ anime ran in Japan from 1998 to 1999 and has garnered a high level of critical acclaim. The show did incredibly well internationally, and also picked up multiple awards.
No news yet on exactly when the first season of the live-action ‘Cowboy Bebop‘ will premiere, but look out for it on Netflix.
