The much-discussed live action transposition of Cowboy Bebop, a cult anime that Shinichiro Watanabe had created at Sunrise, was canceled by Netflix after only one season despite some fans having appreciated the final result. Watanabe, on the other hand, admitted that he refused to watch the TV series after a specific scene. Here’s what he said in a recent interview with Forbes.
Watanabe didn’t want to see the Cowboy Bebop live action series
They sent me a video of the Netflix adaptation and wanted to know what I thought. It started with a scene set in a casino and it was very hard for me to continue. I saw the beginning and then stopped, it was clear to me that this was not Cowboy Bebop. Maybe I should have agreed to be a part of it in order to avoid all of this. But now the value of the original anime has skyrocketed.
The TV series of Cowboy Bebop premiered on November 19, 2021 but was canceled by the streaming service less than three weeks later on December 9. Fans of the series have therefore created a petition on Change.org with the aim of reviving the show and giving it a second season, but Netflix did not want to hear about it. The decision to cancel the series by the streaming platform was made by evaluating the average popularity of the series and above all its production costs.
John Cho took the role of Spike Siegel in live action, an actor who totally identified himself in the part and saw the cancellation of the show as a total shock. For Cowboy Bebop John Cho had moved to New Zealand with his family, considering that the production was located right there. Despite the unflattering end of Cowboy Bebop, Cho has still shown great appreciation for those who have expressed words of support and gratitude for what has been done in trying to best transpose the cult anime.
