John Cho knew going in that he had the world watching as soon as they announced they would be adapting the world-wide sensation that is Cowboy Bebop. The Japanese science fiction western neo-noir anime captured audiences’ imagination around the world, being the first anime title to be broadcast on Adult Swim in the US. Over twenty years later, it’s still considered sacred source material. So what was Cho’s “biggest fear?”
His age. “The biggest fear that I had was I was too old. I knew people were gonna have issues with my age. And I had to get over it.” Spike Spiegel, the intergalactic bounty hunter he’s portraying in the series, is meant to be 27 years old in the original. Cho turned 49 this year.
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John Cho admits that it might have been easier for him at a younger age to accomplish the action scenes the series calls for, but that what he lacks in youth, he made up for with wisdom. “Maybe I would’ve been better suited athletically, but in terms of my discipline, I am strangely better suited at this age.” In his younger years he also considered action movies as less than. “I didn’t give that kind of acting enough credit. I was a … nerd snob.”
Getting into Spike Spiegel shape also changed his way of thinking about action stars. “Training is also a more accurate parallel to how to get a good performance,” Cho said. “When I was younger, I thought I could tap into some sort of muse and have the thing strike me. But it’s actually more banal and harder than that, which is you just drill it, drill it, drill it until it’s muscle memory.”
See You Space Cowboy. Meet Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) in Cowboy Bebop, premiering November 19, only on Netflix. @bebopnetflix@netflix @netflixgeeked #COWBOYBEBOPpic.twitter.com/7kdwOt1Fou
— John Cho (@JohnTheCho) August 23, 2021
Cho also credits his age, enabling him through life experience, to understand and convey Spike’s depth of character. “I don’t think I would’ve done justice to the emotional depth we tried to give Spike,” he explains. If he was younger, his Spike would have been more fueled by his angst. “What I’m better at, being older, is showing weakness and vulnerability and love. Those things are more accessible to me. Personally, I’d prefer the version I’m able to do now.”
Alex Hassell as Vicious, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, Elena Satine as Julia, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, and Blessing Mokgohloa as Santiago will join Cho’s Spike Siegel as the ragtag crew of bounty hunters chasing down the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals. The 10-episode adaptation will be directed by Alex Garcia Lopez (The Witcher, Daredevil series) and Michael Katleman (Primeval, The Fix).
Hajime Yatate’s (Cowboy Bebop series and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie) characters have acclaimed writers Christopher L. Yost (The Mandalorian), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (The DarkCrystal: Age of Resistance, Guardians of the Galaxy series), and Vivian Lee (Lost in Space series) among others adapting the series. Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the original anime series, has been brought aboard as a consultant near guaranteeing an authenticity of the original. Cowboy Bebop is scheduled to be released on Netflix on November 19, 2021. This news come from Vulture.
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