Netflix showrunner André Nemec has confirmed that his live-action Cowboy Bebop is an "expansion of the canon" rather than a beat-for-beat remake of the original anime.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nemec discussed his approach to making a live-action Cowboy Bebop for Netflix, explaining how he hadn't wanted to replicate the story of the original anime with a direct adaptation, but rather step into its world to present an "expansion to the canon," with some original stories that will "add things" to the mythos.
"I promise we will never take the original anime away from the purists. It will always exist out there," Nemec assured fans of the Japanese anime classic. "But I'm very excited about the stories that we're telling. I believe we've done a really nice job of not violating the canon in any direction but merely offering some extra glimpses into the world that was already created."
We got under the skin of who the live-action characters were going to be," he added. "I think that the poetic nature of the anime absolutely allowed for us to mine the archetypal nature of the characters and dig out deeper histories that we wanted to explore — and answer some of the questions that the anime leaves you with."
Nemec expressed that he didn't feel the need to "serve the exact same meal" by retelling the same story in a different form, even though he acknowledged that the anime had done such an "amazing job." Ultimately, he felt redoing the anime would deliver disappointing results as it would "leave an audience hungry for something that they already saw."
Cowboy Bebop will debut its 10-episode first season on Netflix on November 19 — here's what we think the show needs to get right. The series joins several other live-action adaptations in the pipeline, including a new Netflix series based on One Piece, an Akira remake from director Taika Waititi, and a reimagined version of Your Name.
Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.