Mega Man: Everything We Know About Netflix’s Movie

The latest videogame to get the green light for an adaptation is Mega Man, all thanks to Netflix, and here’s everything you need to know about this project. Although it’s not new for the film and TV industries to adapt different videogames to their formats, these have certainly gained force in recent years, with projects like Sonic the Hedgehog, Uncharted, Halo, and more. Now, the latest title to join the fun is Mega Man, the Japanese sci-fi videogame created by Capcom and released in 1987 for Nintendo.

Mega Man (also known as Rockman) takes players to the year 20XX, where robots have been created to assist mankind, all thanks to renowned designer Dr. Light. One day, these robots go out of control and start attacking humans, among them six advanced humanoid robots created by Dr. Light and known as the “Robot Masters”. Dr. Light realizes this is his rival’s doing, Dr. Wily, and so his helper robot, Rock, who has a strong sense of justice, offers to be converted into a fighting robot to stop Dr. Wily, and so he becomes Mega Man. Although Mega Man was a critical success, it wasn’t a commercial one, but it still made way for a videogame franchise consisting of eleven games (for the main series) and different spinoffs.

Mega Man is credited with influencing the structure of modern videogames thanks to its non-linear “level select” option, and its popularity has also allowed it to branch out to other media, except film – until now. A Mega Man movie has now been announced to be in development at Netflix, and here’s everything you need to know about it.

Who Is Involved In Netflix’s Mega Man Movie?

The Mega Man adaptation was announced on production company Supermarché’s website, which confirmed the involvement of Henry Joost and Rel Schulman as writers and directors, alongside “their in-house producer Orlee-Rose Strauss”. In 2020, Mattson Tomlin was confirmed to be writing the script for the Mega Man adaptation, but his name was not included in the brief statement on Supermarché’s website, which also confirmed the project will become part of Netflix’s ever-expanding catalogue.

Why Mega Man Has Taken So Long To Make

A Mega Man movie has been in development since 2015, when 20th Century Fox, Chernin Entertainment, and Capcom started working on it. Two years later, Joost and Schulman were brought on board to write and direct, with Masi Oka serving as a producer. However, the project was canceled following the acquisition of Fox by Disney, along with many other videogame based movies that were in development at Fox – but months later, in late 2019, Capcom revealed to investors that the Mega Man movie was still in development at Disney, and Tomlin was later announced to be rewriting the script. Jumping to April 2020, Peter Chernin signed Chernin Entertainment to a non-exclusive first-look feature film producing deal with Netflix, and after Disney put the project into turnaround, Netflix acquired the film rights, finally giving Mega Man fans some hope.

Is Netflix’s Mega Man Live-Action?

When a Mega Man movie adaptation was announced years ago, it was revealed to be a live-action one, and that’s believed to still be the plan for the Netflix movie, though that hasn’t been confirmed now that Netflix is involved (and the streaming giant has seen both live-action and animated video game adaptations).

Predicted Mega Man Release Date

As mentioned above, Mega Man hasn’t been officially announced by Netflix, and some sources (like IGN) report that the project is very early in development, so it will be a while until fans can see all those characters in a movie. If the project doesn’t go through any more production problems and obstacles, the long-awaited Mega Man movie could see the light sometime in 2023, at the earliest.

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
(3271 Articles Published)

Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

More From Adrienne Tyler

See also  KUWTK: Stylist Claims North West Has ‘Particular’ Demands for Her Hair