Netflix Just Dropped the Trailer for the New John Cho-Starring Live-Action 'Cowboy Bebop' Series

The cult Japanese anime and its space western hijinks are getting the Netflix treatment this November.
Sarah Ward
October 20, 2021

Advertising all the new films and TV shows coming our way, trailers are designed to get audiences excited. If you're seeing them in a cinema, they're telling you what you should be heading back to watch next. If you're checking out sneak peeks for new television and streaming releases, they want you to add them to your viewing list.

Sometimes, however, a trailer stands out because it has fun with the concept — and the sneak peek at Netflix's new Cowboy Bebop series is one such example. Not only does it send its three central characters on a lively bounty and drop plenty of snarky, quippy dialogue, but it also gets them playing with a split-screen setup in quite the slick, vivid and eye-catching way.

Hopefully, that's a sign of visually inventive things to come when the show hits the streaming platform on Friday, November 19, and of the tone that both existing fans of the cult Japanese anime of the same name and newcomers can expect as well. Like its source material, this live-action series is filled with space western hijinks  — it wouldn't be Cowboy Bebop otherwise — all as bounty hunters Spike Spiegel (John Cho, The Grudge), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir, The Deuce) and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) chase down all of the most dangerous criminals in the solar system.

Obviously, Netflix's algorithm told it that everyone loves the original animated 90s series — and that everyone loves Searching, Gemini and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle star Cho as well. When it's right, it's right, clearly.

Alex Hassell (The Boys), Elena Satine (Twin Peaks) and New Zealand actor Rachel House (Cousins, Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) also feature on-screen, while the High Fidelity remake's André Nemec leads the charge behind the camera as Cowboy Bebop's showrunner.

Check out the Cowboy Bebop trailer below:

Cowboy Bebop will be available to stream via Netflix from Friday, November 19.

Top image: Geoffrey Short/Netflix.

Published on October 20, 2021 by Sarah Ward
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