Netflix Adapting Gundam Into A Live-Action Film

The world of Gundam is making its way to live-action thanks to Netflix. The big streaming platform has announced their intentions adapting the popular Gundam series into a film with Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts helping bring the feature version to life as a director and producer

The immensely popular mecha anime franchise was announced by Netflix as their next project for their movie library. In a press release, the streaming giant will be teaming up with Legendary to tackle Gundam into a live-action film. Comic book scribe Brian K. Vaughn will be writing the script for the potential film and also serve as an executive producer on the project. Legendary’s Cale Boyter will be overlooking the film alongside the Sunrise creative team.

No plot details were announced for the live-action version, but Gundam has become a priority for Netflix since it was picked up. It was back in 2018 when the project was revealed at the Anime Expo with both Legendary Pictures and Sunrise collaborating on it. Netflix will be releasing the film worldwide except for China, where Legendary will be distributing the film theatrically. Launched in 1979, the Gundam franchise has amassed a huge multi-billion-dollar property that helped popularize the mecha genre with its different types of media.

The original Gundam series takes place in the Universal Century, an era where humanity has spread across space and created colonies outside of Earth into the star system. Eventually, a war breaks out for humanity’s independence against those living on Earth. The film tackles war, loss, and innocence among its themes throughout the different series they have released over the years. The story heavily involves soldiers piloting robots known as mobile suits into huge epic battles. Much of the franchise is popular for their popularity in the mecha genre and bringing it into the West. The Gundam universe has spawned over 50 series, films, and OVAs as well as expanding into mangas, novels, and video games.

Vogt-Roberts has been known for his work with Legendary in the monster hit Kong: Skull Island. With such incredible credentials, the director is no stranger to epic fights with big set pieces, so it seems like the perfect fit. The MonsterVerse has been successful with Godzilla vs. Kong and Legendary has already been in the business of creating movies about giant robots with the Pacific Rim film series. Audiences got a brief glimpse into what a live-action Gundam would look like thanks to Steven Spielberg’s film Ready Player One.

No date has been given for when the Gundam live-action feature would release, but it isn’t the only anime that Netflix is working on. They are currently tackling a live-action TV series based on Cowboy Bebop, which should arrive sometime this year. This does increase the ever-expanding library of anime properties that the streaming service has at its disposal.


Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Need coverage? Please send an email to [email protected]

Mufsin Mahbub is a contributing writer and Host at All Ages of Geek. You can follow her on Twitter @mufsinm

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

LATEST ARTICLES

All Ages of Geek Simple Curved Second Line Green