Netflix Unveils First Images of Live-Action 'Cowboy Bebop' with an Official Release Date

The streamer announces a fall release date for their long-awaited live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. 

After a series of delays, Netflix's live-action Cowboy Bebop series is finally rounding the corner.

On Monday morning, the streamer announced an official release date for the highly-anticipated series, setting its premiere for November 19th. Along with the reveal, Netflix shared a handful of images from the anime adaptation, showcasing John Cho's Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir's Jet Black, and Daniella Pineda's Faye Valentine for the first time.

The series is based on Shinichirō Watanabe's classic planet-jumping Western anime, which debuted stateside on Adult Swim's Toonami block in 2001. It follows a trio of space-travelling bounty-hunters (Spike, Jet, and Faye,) as they collect bags for the heads of the solar system's most wanted criminals. Watanabe is serving as a consultant on the series, which isn't just a live-action rip of the original show. According to writer, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the new take will expand the world we were introduced to 20 years back. "We’re not going to go one-to-one on all of those stories because we’re also trying to tell the broader story of Spike Spiegel and the Syndicate, Spike Spiegel and Julia, Spike Spiegel and Vicious, and all that," Grillo-Marxuach told Collider  in a 2020 interview. "We are looking at the show and saying, "Who are some of the great villains in this show, and how can we put them into this broader narrative?" So that we are telling both of the big stories that Cowboy Bebop tells," the writer added.

Yoko Kanno, composer of the original show's equally iconic score and theme song, is also returning for the Netflix series. But we'll just have to wait until the launch to put an ear on what she's cooking up for this new take.

See the first images from Netflix's live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop below. Hold tight for a trailer to arrive ahead of the show's premiere this fall.