The iconic grand daddy of “real robot” mecha anime, Gundam, is getting the live-action adaptation treatment over at Netflix.
Netflix recently announced a live-action Gundam film adaptation is on the way in partnership with Legendary Entertainment. It will be directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) who is reportedly also working on a Metal Gear Solid film adaptation. They have yet to reveal any clues as to the plot, but we can probably expect something like Pacific Rim except the Kaiju are other people in mechs and it’s much further in the future. Also space.
The Gundam franchise, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and the Sunrise animation studio, began as a Japanese anime in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam and has since been adapted into a wide variety of sequel, prequel, spin-off, and reboot series, films, manga, and video games. Even if you’ve never actively absorbed any Gundam media, you probably have the iconic giant robot burned into your memory via pop-cultural osmosis.
For the uninitiated, Gundam refers to the giant, bipedal, humanoid mech suits, piloted by humans situated in the chest, and generally armed with giant swords, shields, and ludicrous guns, that the future military deploys to fight in whatever war happens to be going on. Any piloted humanoid mech you can think of was probably inspired by the Gundam franchise. The mech is such a pop culture icon in Japan that they have built multiple full-size Gundam statues to celebrate its awesomeness.