Cowboy Bebop (2021 TV series)
Cowboy Bebop, the 2021 Netflix live-action series, arrived on the 19th of November 2021, with nearly two decades of anticipation behind it. The original 1998 Japanese anime had built a following unlike almost any other animated series of its era. Now Netflix, Tomorrow Studios, and showrunner Andre Nemec were betting they could bring that world to life with real actors, real sets, and 185 filming locations across Auckland, New Zealand. It lasted exactly 21 days before Netflix pulled the plug. The cancellation on the 9th of December 2021, left the show on a cliffhanger. It also left fans, critics, and the original anime's director publicly at odds over what, exactly, had gone wrong. How does a show with nearly 74 million viewing hours in its debut week get cancelled so fast? And what did original director Shinichiro Watanabe think when he finally watched it?
John Cho's first instinct when he came across the Cowboy Bebop project was to call Aneesh Chaganty, his director on the 2018 film Searching, to talk it through. Chaganty told him, "You have to do it." Cho had his own condition before signing on: he insisted that composer Yoko Kanno, who scored the original 1998 anime, be locked in first. "I didn't think the show should go forward without her involvement," Cho said. "Our iteration minus her would suffer too much."
Nemec made a deliberate choice to cast older, more experienced actors than anime fans might expect. He explained in October 2021 that Spike Spiegel required "real depth of life experience in his soul" and said he could not imagine anyone but Cho in the role. Mustafa Shakir took on Jet Black, a former detective who spent five years in prison over a wrongful conviction, while Daniella Pineda played Faye Valentine, a bounty hunter who woke from cryosleep without her memories. Alex Hassell played Vicious, Spike's former closest friend turned nemesis, and Elena Satine joined as Julia in August 2019.
The casting of newcomer Eden Perkins as Radical Ed was held back entirely until the day of the series' release. Perkins appears only in the final scenes of the tenth episode. Nemec said the secrecy was partly practical: Ed does not appear in the anime until roughly a third of the way through the series, so withholding the character felt fair.
In October 2019, John Cho tore his knee. The injury set production back by about eight months, and it reshuffled what the show would become. The delay gave the writers extra time to pull planned second-season elements into the first season, including the early introduction of Mason Alexander Park as Gren, a character originally written for the thirteenth episode. Filming had reached at least six completed episodes before the injury stopped everything.
Production resumed on the 30th of September 2020, after the New Zealand government cleared the way following the country's COVID-19 shutdown. The shoot finally wrapped on the 15th of March 2021, after touching 185 locations around Auckland, including Bastion Point Reserve, Auckland Harbour Cloud, the former Auckland Railway Station, Ardmore Airport, and Spark Arena. Around 150 locals worked on the art and construction teams. Production manager Clayton Tikao said Auckland was chosen because its urban environment matched the series' grittier visual tone.
The stunt work was built in two phases. The cast trained first with 87eleven Action Design, then moved to New Zealand-based stunt coordinator Allan Poppleton of Cunning Stunts. Elena Satine, who played Julia, was pregnant during filming. The opening credits sequence, which replicated the original anime's iconic opening using "Tank!" with live-action recreations, took three days to shoot on its own.
Shinichiro Watanabe, who directed the original 1998 anime with studio Sunrise, was brought in as a creative consultant. In October 2021, Entertainment Weekly confirmed the role. Sunrise provided original character concept drawings, ships, props, sets, and locations as reference material. Watanabe supplied early Cowboy Bebop concept art. He also said of the project's longevity: "For me, it's a great surprise and honor that the Cowboy Bebop universe has thrived for over 20 years and will continue onward."
But in November 2019, well before the show aired, Watanabe had already expressed his doubts. He said he had read the initial concept and provided opinions, but added: "I'm not sure if they will be reflected in the final product. I have no choice but to pray and hope that it will turn out good." After the series released, he described watching it. Netflix sent him a video to review. It opened with a casino scene. He stopped there. "It was clearly not Cowboy Bebop," he said, "and I realized at that point that if I wasn't involved, it would not be Cowboy Bebop."
His Japanese voice cast counterpart took a different view. Koichi Yamadera, the Japanese voice actor for Spike in the original anime, said he had "long anticipated a live action version" and could feel "the strong respect it has toward the anime." The fact that several original Japanese voice actors reprised their roles for the Japanese dub of the live-action show added a layer of continuity that the creative team clearly valued, even as Watanabe himself walked away from the first scene.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series landed at 45 percent approval based on 87 critics' reviews. Metacritic calculated an average of 47 out of 100 from 28 reviews. The critics' consensus on Rotten Tomatoes read: "Maybe next time, Space Cowboy - this live-action Bebop has a fun enough crew to spend time with, but it disappointingly replaces the soulfulness of the source material with kitsch."
The cast itself was the one area where critics nearly agreed. Shirley Li of The Atlantic wrote that John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, and Daniella Pineda had "electric chemistry," with Cho embodying Spike's swagger, Shakir capturing Jet's stoicism, and Pineda bringing "endearing candor" to Faye. The writing and pacing drew far harsher assessments. Cecilia D'Anastasio, writing in Wired, called the writing "corny" with "muddled subplots." Judy Berman of Time described the decision to expand each episode from 25 minutes to an hour as "baffling."
The visual aesthetic split reviewers almost evenly. Graeme Virtue of The Guardian described the show as "visually amped-up" and "stylised and swaggering to near saturation." The Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han called it "a knockoff Firefly, made for a fraction of the budget," with "muddy CG" and "shoddy-looking sets." Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall landed somewhere in between, describing a "blend of high and low elements" that made even cheap sequences "pop off the screen in appealing ways."
Netflix's renewal decision came down to a formula: the company's renewal rate for scripted series runs at roughly 60 percent, and the decision balances viewership against cost. Cowboy Bebop had reached Netflix's Top 10 with nearly 74 million viewing hours worldwide since its debut. That number sounded strong. But viewership dropped 59 percent in the week from November 29 to the 5th of December 2021, and Netflix cancelled the series on December 9.
Nemec had already been planning a second season before writing the first. In an interview with Vanity Fair on the 26th of October 2021, Christopher Yost confirmed he had begun planning season two before the first was finished. Nemec later described in a podcast what that second season would have explored: Spike confronting the demons of the Blue Crow massacre, Faye discovering who she truly is, and Ed uncovering the true meaning of family. Jet's cybernetic arm would have malfunctioned while he was incapacitated, leaving him to play saxophone with one hand.
Fan reaction to the cancellation was split. A petition called "Save the live action Cowboy Bebop" gathered over 150,000 signatures, including one from Steve Blum, the English voice actor for Spike in the original anime. Author Wesley Chu tweeted the petition link after comparing the show's fate to Firefly's. The series received a nomination for Outstanding Main Title Design at the 74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2022, its only major industry recognition. The prequel novel Cowboy Bebop: A Syndicate Story: Red Planet Requiem had been released by Titan Books just two days before the cancellation, on the 7th of December 2021.
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Common questions
When was the Cowboy Bebop 2021 TV series announced?
An American live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop was announced for television on the 6th of June 2017 by Tomorrow Studios. This partnership involved Marty Adelstein and ITV Studios alongside Sunrise Inc., which produced the original anime.
Who played Spike Spiegel in the Cowboy Bebop 2021 TV series?
John Cho grew out his hair to mimic Spike Spiegel's look from the anime when cast on the 4th of April 2019. He starred as the protagonist who stands atop the rusted hull of the Bebop spaceship while his cybernetic arm clicks softly against the metal railing.
Where did filming take place for the Cowboy Bebop 2021 TV series?
Filming took place in 185 locations around Auckland, New Zealand between July 2019 and March 2021. The Bastion Point Reserve and Ardmore Airport served as key filming locations for exterior scenes while Spark Arena and St Matthew's Church were used for interior shots.
Why was production delayed during the making of the Cowboy Bebop 2021 TV series?
John Cho sustained a knee injury in October 2019 that set back production by about eight months. Production resumed on the 30th of September 2020 when the New Zealand government lifted COVID-19 shutdown restrictions.
What happened to the Cowboy Bebop 2021 TV series after its release?
Netflix canceled the series after one season on the 9th of December 2021 less than three weeks after its release. Although Cowboy Bebop reached almost 74 million viewing hours worldwide since debut viewership dropped by 59% the following week.