Joking around with Cowboy Bebop, one of the most beloved anime is a no-no. That’s why the Netflix live-action adaptation ending on a highly controversial note has disgruntled fans.
Cowboy Bebop Season 1 ended with Julia (Elena Satine) shooting both Vicious (Alex Hassell) and Spike (John Cho). While the former was predictable, the latter was a situation no fan would have ever imagined.
In the anime, Spike and Julia share a romantic but tragic love story, with Julia loving him despite him leaving her alone. However, things took a different turn as the femme fatale has become a villain in the live-action.
Showrunner Nemec explained the stance to Los Angeles Times, saying that Julia was just a plot device in the anime, but the team wanted to give her “more agency.”
The more we talked about [Julia] in the writers room, the more it became clear that we had this amazing opportunity to birth a villain. To see this woman—who has been put into this environment and, through her desire to escape the environment, [is] inculcated into its horror, into its violence—realize that [she can] take the reins now.
“I’ve dreamt of you endlessly,” says Spike when Julia saves him from Vicious. But rather than go all heart-eyes and forgive him, she asks, “Then why didn’t you come for me?”
Nemec also has a logical explanation behind Julia’s hatred towards Spike.
She doesn’t need him anymore. And I think it speaks volumes to Spike’s character, to the romantic ideas that float through his head and to the dreams that he has from the very beginning, that he still longs for something that he hasn’t allowed to evolve. His thoughts are frozen in time and hers are absolutely not.
Looking at it from the point of view of the show being created not only for the old fans but also to lure new ones, Cowboy Bebop has unfortunately received the label of a flop.
Negative criticism poured in from the get-go, but the finale changing one of the most prominent characters makes its future look bleak.
There hasn’t been any official news about Cowboy Bebop Season 2 yet.
About Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop is an upcoming Netflix live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime series of the same name. The series is developed by André Nemec and written by Christopher Yost. It consists of 10 one-hour-long episodes.
It stars John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda and Faye Valentine, Elena Satine as Julia, and Alex Hassell as Vicious.
It is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2021.
Source: LAtimes
No Comments on Cowboy Bebop Live-action Showrunner Explains Controversial Ending of S01