Per Netflix, “Cowboy Bebop” is an action-packed space Western about three bounty hunters, or cowboys, all trying to outrun the past. As different as they are deadly, Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) form a scrappy, snarky crew ready to hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals — for the right price. But they can only kick and quip their way out of so many scuffles before their pasts finally catch up with them.
The series is executive produced by André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio; Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios; Makoto Asanuma, Shin Sasaki, and Masayuki Ozaki of Sunrise Inc.; as well as Tim Coddington, Tetsu Fujimura, Michael Katleman, Matthew Weinberg, and Christopher Yost. Nemec serves as showrunner. Original anime series director Shinichirō Watanabe is a consultant on the series, and original composer Yoko Kanno returns for the live-action adaptation. The series also stars Alex Hassell and Elena Satine.
Related ‘Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story’ Sneak Peek: Adjoa Andoh’s Lady Danbury Origin Story Is Revealed Netflix’s ‘Kaleidoscope’ Unlocks a Watch-In-Any-Order Format for an Intriguing Heist Show Related The Best True Crime Streaming Now, from ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ to ‘McMillions’ to ‘The Staircase’ Oscars 2023: Best Documentary Feature Predictions
Nemec has recently stressed that the Netflix adaptation wouldn’t be a straight remake of the original anime and has said that it could answer questions that diehard fans have long had about its characters.
“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,” Nemec said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. “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.”
Check out the opening credits sequence for Netflix’s “Cowboy Bebop” below:
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.