Netflix has found a Bebop crew it can jam with.
The Hollywood Reporter has word that Netflix confirmed the cast for its live-action adaptation of the beloved anime Cowboy Bebop and that the first two episodes will be directed by Alex Garcia Lopez. The ten-episode series is being showrun by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg. Cowboy Bebop’s original director, Shinichiro Watanabe, is also on board to consult the adaptation.
John Cho—probably best known to io9 audiences for his role as Sulu in the rebooted Star Trek movies, as well as turns in Searching and Sleepy Hollow—will lead the ensemble as the legendarily smooth Spike Spiegel, a bounty hunter and leader of the ragtag crew aboard the spaceship Bebop as the team takes on new jobs together. He’ll be joined by Luke Cage’s Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, a former cop turned captain of the Bebop and an old partner of Spike, while Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s Daniella Pineda will play the mysterious Faye Valentine, an amnesiac con artist who joins the Bebop’s crew after initially being the target of a bounty Jet and Spike were chasing.
There’s no word on who will be playing the fourth and fifth members of the Bebop team—whizkid master hacker Ed, and the loveably adorable corgi Ein—but today’s announcement was rounded out with the casting of a major antagonist for the series: Alex Hassell as Vicious, a former bounty hunting partner of Spike’s in the Red Dragon crime syndicate, who is now out to kill him.
We’ll bring you more on Netflix’s plans for Cowboy Bebop as and when we learn them.
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