On August 23, 2021, Netflix announced that the long-anticipated live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop would be premiering on November 19th. Netflix also posted photos to their social media accounts that showed cast members as their characters, including the following:
- John Cho as Spike Spiegel
- Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black
- Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine
The photos also include Cowboy Bebop’s resident corgi, Ein.
The series will consist of 10 episodes.
Pineda’s Response to Online Comments
Reactions to Faye’s outfit in the cast photos were rather mixed, primarily because the outfit differs from the anime’s outfit a great deal. Comments on Netflix’s initial tweet range from commenting on Pineda’s casting to criticism of the outfit itself.
Where Faye’s outfit is rather revealing in the anime, the live-action take on the outfit offers homage to the original through a similar color palette. The outfit was toned down for the live-action adaptation. Cowboy Bebop writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach said in an interview with i09 in 2020 that changes were made because “we need to have a real human being wearing that.”
Pineda, who is known for her work in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and What/If, responded to online comments from fans during the week following the release of the cast photos. Her response came via her Instagram Stories where she joked about trying to do stunts in outfits that looked like the anime’s original design:
“You know, we tried, but doing stunts in tissue paper, things disappear, they rip, sometimes just got lost—. Anyway, like I was saying, that original costume, they made a couple of them. But like I said, they got sort of slurped up in my various crevices, never to be retrieved again, so we needed to build something that could withstand the test of time.”
Pineda’s entire response can be seen below.
Responses to Pineda’s videos were mixed once again. Some viewed it as an attack on fans while others were in support, even calling the reaction very in-character as Faye.
Synopsis of Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop Series
Netflix’s synopsis for the live action series describes the show as follows:
“A ragtag crew of bounty hunters chases down the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals. They’ll save the world … for the right price. A live-action series.”
Jeff Pinkner, writer and executive producer of the series, spoke on the series with the Observer:
“I think that because we have these hour-long episodes, we have an opportunity to take the anime and sort of like just deepen and dimensionalize the source material. Really tell stories set in that world in a way that hopefully will not only delight the fans of anime but expose a whole bunch of new people to the world of Cowboy Bebop, the awesome work of Yoko Kanno. It’s a delight.”
As of publishing, the actor for Radical Ed has not been announced. Other cast members include:
- Geoff Stutts as Chalmers
- Tamara Tunie as Ana
- Mason Alexander Park as Gren
- Rachel House as Mao
- Ann Truong as Shin
- Hoa Xuande as Lin
And for fans of Yoko Kanno’s iconic music from the Cowboy Bebop anime, Kanno is returning to compose the music for Netflix’s live-action adaptation.
Are you looking forward to this new take on an anime classic? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter!
