Although the petition to save Netflix Cowboy Bebop live-action has reached 120K, it most likely will stay cancelled forever.
A lot of people who have not seen the Netflix Original live-action adaption of the Cowboy Bebop anime, nor have seen the original animation are signing the petition. Still, despite their best efforts, Cowboy Bebop will stay cancelled and wont be renewed for another show.
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The western market for live-action adaptations of classic anime and manga is quite modest. Scarlett Johansson’s high-profile role in Ghost in the Shell, a film that failed to break even at the box office, proves this point.
Alita: Battle Angel, directed by James Cameron, was one of the few western manga adaptations that came close to making a significant amount of money at the box office. Despite the clamour of fans and the tremendous desire from the public, Disney is hesitant to produce a sequel to the film.
After only a few weeks on Netflix, the live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop starring actor John Cho as Spike Spiegel was abruptly cancelled, and the likelihood of a second season is slim to none, despite an outpouring of support for it on Reddit and a petition to save it.
Fans of the original manga despise Netflix’s live-action remake and are not interested in seeing a second season. Lastly, the show appears too over produced and the direction and writing fails to sell the illusion of a space cowboy saga. Even critics agree:
“Cowboy Bebop has some bright spots, but they are overshadowed by weak direction, an underwhelming supporting cast, uninspiring fight choreography, and weird edits to the original Cowboy Bebop music,” John Nguyen of Nerd Reactor wrote.
Even Watanabe, the creator himself, said that the polite episode left a “sour taste in [his] mouth.”
Furthermore, Watanabe never explicitly granted Netflix permission or approval to convert his manga into a live-action television series set in the United States.
“Also, for Cowboy Bebop, I don’t have any right to stop it,” the creator clarified. “Those rights are in the hands of Sunrise, so if you have a complaint, please send it to them.”
Cowboy Bebop will stay cancelled.
A lot of the people who signed the petition to save Cowboy Bebop also admit to never having watched the original anime, or even the live-action Netflix remake, but instead just want to “piss of salty incels who want to gatekeep anime and comic books.”
There’s even another petition to “Keep Netflix Live Action Cowboy Bebop Cancelled,” which has garnered nearly 12,000 signatures so far and is still growing.
Trusted critics were harsh in their assessments of Cowboy Bebop. It doesn’t sit well with the manga’s original author. Fans of the original anime are outraged by it. “It wasn’t great but they should at least renew it for one more season” is not likely to persuade producers to fund the show for a second season.
Another season of Cowboy Bebop live-action on Netflix is out of the question. Those who loved it will have to pretend that Spike Spiegel died of cringe upon meeting Ed in the season, and now series, finale. It’s all over.