Cowboy Bebop: release date, cast, trailer for Netflix live-action series

In our Cowboy Bebop review, we described the show as a "pale imitation" of the source material, saddled with some serious pacing issues, but acknowledged that it does contain some decent performances – and perhaps even potential to find its feet.

That is, if the show gets the opportunity to return for a second season, which will require strong prolonged viewership on Netflix after the budget ballooned due to two lengthy production delays.

For the uninitiated, Cowboy Bebop is set in the year 2071 and follows the misadventure of a group of outlaws making a living in the galaxy by tracking down wanted criminals.

Original composer Yoko Kanno returns to keep the show's famously jazzy soundtrack up to par, while Star Trek alum John Cho leads the cast as bounty hunter Spike Spiegel.

Read on for the confirmed Cowboy Bebop Netflix release date, cast, trailer and more details on the brand new series.

Cowboy Bebop Netflix release date

CONFIRMED: Netflix's live-action Cowboy Bebop remake will premiere on the streaming service on Friday 19th November 2021, consisting of 10 episodes in total.

The show has taken a long time to get here, with filming initially getting started in 2019, but quickly grinding to a halt after lead actor John Cho sustained a painful injury on set.

"I heard a big pop and went, ‘Oh, that’s not good,’” he told Vanity Fair. "The first thought I had was, 'Can we shoot anyway?'"

Cho worked closely alongside the show's stunt co-ordinator Allan Poppleton to try to find a solution that would avoid halting production altogether, but alas, none could be found.

"Poppleton’s like, ‘If you sit on this stool, and we position the camera here to go from the waist up, you won’t have to put any weight on your knees and you can do this and that'... Eventually, we all said this is not sustainable,” explained Cho.

While Cho was on the mend, the coronavirus pandemic sent the world into chaos, which prevented the cast and crew from returning to their set in New Zealand until September 2020.

At that time, the country was officially COVID-free, with the largely American cast needing time to adjust to mixing again following several months of restricted social lives.

Cho added: “I think all the Americans came over to New Zealand carrying all the trauma of those first few months in the US... Mustafa [Shakir], Daniella [Pineda, co-stars] — we just didn’t want to touch anyone for weeks. It was bizarre. We didn’t want to shake anyone’s hands.”

In late March 2021, Pineda shared an Instagram post announcing a wrap on Cowboy Bebop, with the focus shifting to the lengthy post-production stage required for a show of this nature.

In the meantime, all 26 episodes of 1998's Cowboy Bepop anime series were made available on Netflix worldwide, ahead of the November premiere of its live-action remake.

Netflix Geeked shared the news on its official Twitter account, writing: “Bang… COWBOY BEBOP, the original anime series, is coming to Netflix worldwide on October 21.”

Cowboy Bebop Netflix cast

John Cho leads the cast of Netflix's live-action Cowboy Bebop, an actor who initially became known for comedic roles in the American Pie and Harold and Kumar film franchises.

But he's no stranger to wild sci-fi worlds either, having played Hikaru Sulu in the latest Star Trek trilogy. Nevertheless, his casting here proved controversial among die-hard fans of the anime.

They argued that 49-year-old Cho was not the right age to play lead character Spike Spiegel, who is depicted as being more than 20 years younger in the original series.

“The biggest fear that I had was I was too old," he told Vulture. "I knew people were gonna have issues with my age and I had to get over it... At some point, the opportunity is ‘Yes or no — do you wanna do it?’ And I did wanna do it. So I wasn’t gonna stop myself from doing it.”

Cho added: "I couldn’t have done it when I was 27. I mean, maybe I would’ve been better suited athletically, but in terms of my discipline, I am strangely better suited at this age. I don’t think I would’ve done justice to the emotional depth we tried to give Spike. There’s always a trade-off."

In addition, Cho recently spoke out about how playing Spiegel has been the “most challenging” role of his life.

Revealing he'd done everything from learning martial arts to studying the original anime, he told HYPEBEAST: "It was the most challenging role of my life. I had to express myself physically in a way I haven’t been asked to do before in terms of the action stuff.

“The first thing was getting proficient in martial arts and trying to learn as much as I could in the time that I had. And that then started to inform who the person was, the more I did it. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m now playing a person that’s capable of doing this.’”

Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage) also stars as Bebop captain Jet Black, while Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World) fills the role of bounty hunter and con artist Faye Valentine.

Spike's bitter nemesis Vicious is to be portrayed by The Boys alum Alex Hassell, while his complex love interest Julia will be played by Elena Satine (The Gifted).

The supporting Cowboy Bebop cast includes Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Jan Uddin (Agents of SHIELD), Adrienne Barbeau (American Horror Stories), Josh Randall (CSI), Geoff Stults (Grace and Frankie), and Rachel House (Thor: Ragnarok).

Is Cowboy Bebop based on an anime?

Yes! The original Cowboy Bebop was first broadcast on television between 1998 and 1999, quickly building up a passionate fan following with its bold vision of the future and larger-than-life characters.

And you can watch the 26-episode series right now as it has been made available to stream on Netflix!

A feature-length anime film based on Cowboy Bebop was released in 2003, with original director Shinichirō Watanabe returning to helm the project.

While previous live-action adaptations of anime projects have not done justice to the source material, it appears the team behind this latest effort are taking their work very seriously.

“We would look at sets, we would look at props, we would look at costumes, we would look at the edits, we would talk about all of these things, not to ape the anime, but to live in the spirit of the anime," showrunner André Nemec told Polygon.

• Read more: Where’s Ed in Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop?

Cowboy Bebop soundtrack

Die-hard Cowboy Bebop fans will be thrilled to hear that composer Yoko Kanno will be returning to create the soundtrack for the live-action adaptation.

Cowboy Bebop isn’t the only live-action adaptation that Netflix is currently working on, with the streaming giant recently confirming the cast of its upcoming adaptation of the popular manga and anime series, One Piece, which will star Iñaki Godoy as the protagonist Monkey D Luffy.

What is Cowboy Bebop about?

Taking the same premise as the original anime, Cowboy Bebop will follow the adventures of a ragtag gang of bounty hunters who track down space criminals for financial gain.

The first season on Netflix will consist of 10 episodes in total.

Cowboy Bebop trailer

You can watch the official trailer for Cowboy Bebop – which was unveiled on 27th October, 2021 – below to get a taste of what to expect from the series.

Netflix has also revealed the jazzy and stylish opening credits sequence that will play at the beginning of each episode. Check it out below.

Cowboy Bebop is released on Netflix on Friday 19th November. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage, visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight, or read our guides to the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix.