You'll have to forgive me, but I know next to nothing about the Gundam franchise, but there are clearly plenty of people who are going to be overjoyed to learn that a live-action Gundam film is in the works. Legendary Entertainment and Sunrise Inc. announced at Anime Expo 2018 today that they are developing the first ever live-action feature film version of the hugely popular Mecha anime and sci-fi media franchise.
The franchise got its start back in 1979 as Mobile Suit Gundam, a TV series which revolutionized the giant robot genre and would go on to spawn further spin-offs, manga, films, video-games, toys, novels, and more. If, like me, you're not entirely sure what Gundam is all about aside from the giant robots, here's the word straight from the press-release:
The original Gundam series is set in the Universal Century, an era in which humanity's growing population has led people to emigrate to space colonies. Eventually, the people living in the colonies seek their autonomy, and launch a war of independence against the people living on Earth. Through the tragedies and discord arising from this human conflict, not only the maturation of the main character, but also the intentions of enemies and the surrounding people are sensitively depicted. The battles in the story, in which the characters pilot robots known as mobile suits, are wildly popular.
At the moment, the story for the live-action version of Gundam is being kept under wraps, but I'll expect that we'll learn more as the project moves forward. Audiences recently got a small peek at what the live-action version of Gundam could look like when one of the giant robots appeared in Steven Spielberg's READY PLAYER ONE.
Sound off below, Gundam fans. Are you excited to see the franchise make the leap to live-action on the big-screen?