On Thursday, Netflix announced that John Cho will play bounty hunter Spike Spiegel in its live-action remake of Cowboy Bebop.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cho will lead a cast that also includes Daniella Pineda, Alex Hassell and Luke Cage's Mustafa Shakir.
Shakir will play Jet Black, Spike's partner and a cooling influence on the occassionally impulsive hero. Pineda is taking on the role of Faye Valentine, a con artist who falls in with the pair. Hassell will play Spike's arch-nemesis and former partner Vicious.
Netflix describes Cho's Spiegel as "an impossibly cool 'cowboy' (bounty hunter) with a deadly smile, a wry wit and style to spare. He travels the solar system with his ex-cop partner, Jet, pursuing the future's most dangerous bounties with a combination of charm, charisma — and deadly Jeet Kune Do."
The streaming giant has brought on director Shinichiro Watanabe as a consultant for the new series, which it calls a "jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of a ragtag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system's most dangerous criminals."
The live-action remake comes over 20 years after the highly influential anime series debuted in Japan. Blending space western tropes with the movement and energy of hard bop jazz, the series developed a cult following over its short 26-episode lifespan. Whether that energy will translate when the space cowboys are made flesh remains to be seen. The series' first two episodes will be directed by Netflix vet Alex Garcia Lopez, who directed episodes of Luke Cage, Cloak and Dagger and Daredevil.
