Two years after the latest attempt to adapt the Japanese science-fiction animated series Cowboy Bebop was first announced, Netflix revealed on Thursday that its co-production with Tomorrow Studios had a cast. Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage), Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), and Alex Hassell (Suburbicon) were all included in the streamer’s announcement, as was series lead John Cho (Star Trek), who has signed on to play the lead, Spike Spiegel, in the new series. So yeah, people are losing it.
And when I write “losing it,” what I really mean is, “so unbelievably happy.” Cowboy Bebop, which is described by the press release as a “jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts, as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals,” is a hugely popular title. Hollywood has been trying to adapt it for years, but with subsequent controversies about alleged whitewashing in the casting of similar properties, it’s been a slow process.
Now that Cho, a Korean-American actor, has been cast in the project (alongside an incredibly diverse cast, to boot), it seems that most people’s worries have immediately transformed into social media-driven excitement.
this is perfect casting https://t.co/AG4nmfwd9t
— priscilla page (@BBW_BFF) April 4, 2019
john! cho! as! spike! spiegel!
an ATTACKhttps://t.co/5RhKWjAD89
— discourse wallah (@krutika) April 4, 2019
Me: I will never be down for a Cowboy Bebop series
*John Cho walks into the room in a blue suit smoking a cig*PUT THIS IN MY EYESS https://t.co/nlYDKX87EA
— @carlivelocci.com on the other app (@velocciraptor) April 4, 2019
OH MY GOD THEY ACTUALLY DID CAST JOHN CHO AS SPIKE SPIEGEL!https://t.co/KsjGG7j4pE
— Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann) April 4, 2019
Spike Spiegel is basically just Yusaku Matsuda in space and if you don't think John Cho has already been out here serving these looks, then idk what to tell you pic.twitter.com/JhRVAGdNxn
— Jacob Oller (@JacobOller) April 4, 2019
I apologize to everyone who was in the elevator with me when I saw this news and had to put up with my gasping and ridiculous facial expressions
— Angie J. Han (@ajhan) April 4, 2019
john cho has such good Dad energy though, imagine if he was Jet and like Steven Yeun was Spike, that’d be the chef’s kiss right there
— SungWon Cho (@ProZD) April 4, 2019
THIS CAST!!!!! IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!! https://t.co/L7zbKrfBqf
— Evil Emma Stefansky (@stefabsky) April 4, 2019
Of course, this is just a casting announcement for the 10-episode series order, the first two episodes of which will be directed by Daredevil and The Punisher alum Alex Garcia Lopez. Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg are serving as showrunners and executive producers, while Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok writer Christopher Yost is writing the pilot. What’s more, Shinichiro Watanabe, who directed the original Cowboy Bebop anime series, is consulting on the project.
All of this, taken together, sounds like ample grounds for a pretty decent adaptation of the source material. This doesn’t mean that some folks aren’t skeptical, because a few on Twitter are — but they still love Cho’s casting.
The live-action Cowboy Bebop casting is solid, but I'm still extremely skeptical on this whole series. PROVE ME WRONG, NETFLIX. https://t.co/hYlsb1xjeu
— Max Scoville (@MaxScoville) April 4, 2019