Following a poorly received movie adaptation, Netflix is moving ahead with a live-action Death Note series. It was announced on Thursday that Halia Abdel-Meguid had signed on to write and executive producer a Death Note live-action series for the streamer. News that Netflix was looking to revisit Death Note first broke in July as part of the development slate for Upside Down, the production banner for the Duffer brothers (Stranger Things) as part of the duo’s overall deal at Netflix.
Death Note centers on a character named Light Yagami who is a bright student who finds his life changes drastically after discovering the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Light finds that if he writes a name in the Death Note, that person soon dies, so he opts to use the Death Note to rid the world of evil. Unfortunately, though, he soon becomes intoxicated by the power as law enforcement seeks to stop him.
Abdel-Meguid is said to be a longtime fan of the manga and anime series, she’s also said to speak fluent Japanese – having lived in Toyko for some time. Death Note will serve as a reunion between Abdel-Meguid and the Duffer brothers as she worked with them as a writing consultant on their adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub‘s novel The Talisman. Along with penning Death Note, Abdel-Meguid is also attached to another noteworthy project with Hulu’s The Devil in the White City.
This will mark Netflix’s second attempt at adapting Death Note. The streamer released a film adaptation in 2017 from director Adam Wingard that starred Nat Wolff, LaKeith Stanfield, and Margaret Qualley. That project was poorly received, however, and this television series is not expected to be connected to that film.
Source: Deadline.
