There will be no second season for Cowboy Bebop. Netflix has opted not to move forward with a second season of the live-action anime adaptation starring John Cho. The cancellation comes less than a month after the series’ first season was released on the streamer Nov. 19.
Based on Shinichirō Watanabe’s cult anime series, Cowboy Bebop followed a group of misfit bounty hunters, led by Spike Spiegel (Cho) as they search for the galaxy’s most valuable criminals. Mustafa Shakir also starred as Spike’s trusted co-pilot Jet Black and Daniella Pineda as the highly-skilled bounty hunter Faye Valentine. The series debuted on November 19.
The highly-anticipated live action adaptation experienced delays over the course of production due to Cho’s on-set injury, which put the show out for seven to nine months. Original anime series director Shinichirō Watanabe was a consultant on the series, and original composer Yoko Kanno returned to score the live-action adaptation.
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The live-action take on the anime classic was met with mixed reviews by critics and fans of the original, and the series also didn’t make a lasting impression in the streamer’s Top 10 rankings. Because of how expensive Cowboy Bebop, which filmed in New Zealand, the viewership bar it had to clear in order to secure a renewal was higher. That would explain why the cancellation was swifter than usual for Netflix, which traditionally waits for full 28-day audience data before making pickup decisions.
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Cowboy Bebop was executive produced by André Nemec, Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios, Makoto Asanuma, Shin Sasaki and Masayuki Ozaki of Sunrise Inc., Tim Coddington, Tetsu Fujimura, Michael Katleman, Matthew Weinberg, and Christopher Yost. Nemec served as showrunner.
Tomorrow Studios is already working on another live-action series adaptation of a beloved anime series for Netflix, One Piece.