With Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop now streaming, I recently had the chance to talk with Alex Hassell (Vicious) and Elena Satine (Julia) about making the anticipated series. If you’ve never seen Cowboy Bebop, the live-action series adapts the iconic '90s anime of the same name by Shinichirō Watanabe. The original show follows a group of space bounty hunters Spike Spiegel (Cho), Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) and Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir) in the year 2071 and their lives onboard the eponymous ship Bebop, as they navigate life and try to escape their past. The show is famous for its unique blend of western, sci-fi and noir sensibilities, as well as its amazing jazz-inspired soundtrack. While the Netflix live-action series is extremely faithful to the anime, it takes its time getting the crew together, and expands the roles of Vicious and Julia.
During the interview, they talked about adapting their roles from the anime, how they had a lot of room to expand their characters, what might surprise people to learn about the making of the series, Easter eggs, what they want people to know about the show that have never seen the anime, and more.
Cowboy Bepop is written by Christopher Yost, who also serves as a producer, and the showrunner is Andre Nemec. The series is a co-production between the original series creators Sunrise Inc., with executive producer Marty Adelstein's company Tomorrow Studios, and the producing team over at Midnight Radio.
Watch what Elena Satine and Alex Hassell had to say in the player above and everything we talked about is listed below.
Elena Satine and Alex Hassell
- What is it like to adapt character from animation to the screen?
- What do they keep telling their friends and family about the series?
- Alex Hassell on why he loved filming the fight scenes and Elena Satine on how excited she was to sing on stage.
- For people that have never seen Cowboy Bebop what do they want to tell people about it?
- How they had a lot of room to build their characters because of how little they were on the anime.
- What can they tease about any Easter eggs?
- What might surprise people to learn about the making of the series?
