Neil Gaiman opens up about why he was left out of Princess Mononoke‘s English-language poster after penning the script for the dubbed version. Originally written and directed by Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, the animated fantasy epic revolved around Ashitaka, a young prince seeking a cure for a curse a demon placed upon him and ventures into the nearby forest in the hopes of finding one. In his quest to find the deer-like animal god known as the Great Forest Spirit, Ashitaka will find himself in the midst of a war between the forest gods and the mining colony Tatara and meets San, the human Princess Mononoke who was raised by wolves and resents humankind.

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Following its critically and commercially successful launch in Japan in 1997, Miramax acquired the rights for Princess Mononoke and began development on an English-language dub of the film. Billy Crudup led the ensemble cast of the English dub as Ashitaka alongside Claire Danes as San, Minnie Driver, Tara Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, John DeMita, John DiMaggio, Gillian Anderson, Debi Derryberry, Keith David and Jada Pinkett Smith. Though underperforming at the domestic box office, Princess Mononoke would again receive rave reviews from critics in North America and would go on to become a hit on DVD and video releases in the years that followed.

In response to one fan taking to Twitter to share they just learned of his work on the film, Neil Gaiman revealed why he was left out of Princess Mononoke‘s English poster. The author/screenwriter explained that Studio Ghibli pointed out to Miramax there were too many names on the poster, but that rather than the latter come up with a way to ensure Gaiman’s name remained, they elected to only keep Ghibli and Miramax names there. See Gaiman’s explanation below:

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Interestingly, Gaiman was not Miramax’s first choice of writing the English-language dub of Princess Mononoke during its development cycle. The author previously confirmed that Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino was originally offered the position by the studio given their ongoing relationship with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, From Dusk till Dawn and Jackie Brown. Tarantino ultimately turned down the position, but would go on to recommend Gaiman to the studio as a potential alternative to pen Princess Mononoke‘s English script.

Though many anime viewers would recommend watching a subtitled version of the film, questioning some of the vocal performances, Princess Mononoke‘s English-language version continues to prove to be a rare exception of a good dub in the genre. Gaiman paid close attention to making Miyazaki’s Japanese script and story as accessible as possible for North American audiences while also remaining as true to the source material as possible, which ultimately succeeded as the film’s home media success has been credited with helping expand Studio Ghibli’s popularity outside of Japan. Audiences can revisit both versions of Princess Mononoke streaming on HBO Max now.

Source: Neil Gaiman/Twitter

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Grant Hermanns
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Grant Hermanns is a News Writer, Interviewer and Hiring Manager for Screen Rant, having joined the team in early 2021. Way back in 2015 while still in his college days, Grant got his start in the entertainment journalism industry with creator-friendly site Moviepilot until it shuttered nearly three years later. From there he joined the staff at ComingSoon.net and was its Associate Editor prior to coming over to Screen Rant.

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To say he’s a lover of film and television would be an understatement and when he’s not mass consuming either you can find him exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends or slowly making his way through his gaming backlog.

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