Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Netflix

  • Netflix’s Password Crackdown Led to Highest Subscriber Growth Since COVID

    Netflix’s Password Crackdown Led to Highest Subscriber Growth Since COVID

    There was a lot of controversy when Netflix started its password-sharing shutdown. It took big steps to avoid people sharing passwords cross-country and most of the Internet pointed to dropping their involvement with the streaming service. Most expected a massive loss in subscriber numbers but once again the Internet remains a smaller space than one might think.

    Netflix has reported that since their mail on password sharing was released on May 23rd, they saw around 100K daily new subscribers on May 26th and May 27th. Their current growth is even higher than what they saw during COVID, which is when people had nothing to do and were stuck at home most of the day.

    Antenna shared the following graph with The Wrap on how the sign-ups have developed since pre-pandemic times.

    Of course, cancelations have increased as well but they did not keep up with the sign-ups. It seems the rate has gone up by 25.6% in the previous 60 days. They are continuing to push the narrative that a Netflix subscription share is meant for a “household” and it#s surprising that there wasn’t a bigger drop overall.

    It’ll be interesting to see if this continues to keep up long-term subscriber growth going or if this is just a blip for now. Either way, Netflix is very happy with its decision and most of the PR discussions will be forgotten over time. Of course, the question is if their content will remain more consistent with fewer cancelations moving forward to keep people watching.

    Source: Deadline, The Wrap

  • ‘One Piece’s Taz Skylar Shares What it Was Like Preparing to Play Sanji

    ‘One Piece’s Taz Skylar Shares What it Was Like Preparing to Play Sanji

    Netflix has a reputation when it comes to anime live-action adaptations. Ever since they released Death Note in 2017, it seemed like many have made up their mind about what future anime adaptations will be like. Cowboy Bebop wasn’t welcomed with a lot of fanfare before swiftly being canceled after only one season. Still, Tomorrow Studios has one major project up their sleeve for Netflix: a live-action adaptation of One Piece.

    It’s a major challenge to tackle one of the world’s biggest manga franchises but the talented team and cast added some hope for what’s to come. Among the talented cast is Taz Skylar, who will take on the role of the Straw Hat cook, Sanji. While filming, the actor shared his intense kick-based training while also highlighting he took cooking lessons.

    In an interview with Zero Nine, Skylar got a chance to share what it was like bringing the character of Sanji to life and added that he had “a clean slate” for bringing a character to life that never had a live-action adaptation before but is aware of the challenge of bringing an animated character to life.

    Whenever you see references of the character, (Sanji) I don’t have to worry about my interpretation being anything close or anything that is copying or resembling anything that anyone else has done. I get a clean slate when I do it. But secondly, with it being animation, there’s not a single thing you see that isn’t deliberately done.

    Taz Skylar

    He goes on to highlight what makes his character different from the others, as while most have a weapon of some kind, Sanji mainly uses kicks as his weapon of choice. He also deliberately doesn’t use his hands due to them being tools to cook.

    Every other character has an external object they had to practice with. This doesn’t diminish the process of learning how to be good at something. However, in my case, I couldn’t learn to use the object until it became usable. Understanding the mechanics of kicking, for example, doesn’t count unless you can reach the target.

    Taz Skylar

    Skylar goes on to also share that he was all-in or “gone psycho” for this role. We’ve seen a lot of dedication from the cast throughout the production. He shared how he handled the pressure of preparing for this multi-faceted role.

    I’ve never gone psycho like I’ve gone psycho on this. This is the hardest I’ve ever worked for anything in my entire life. But part of it was because of the pressure, which I don’t like admitting because I don’t think it’s a useful sentiment. My way of dealing with the pressure was to go, “Well, at least if I do everything that I know is humanly possible by my standards. And then, you know, if people don’t like it, I can’t go, ‘Oh, well, maybe just Ignore them and go for it.

    Taz Skylar

    To highlight what he accomplished during production, director Marc Jobst took to Twitter highlighting that “he’d come to rehearsal with another awesome dish” and that he was truly committed to the role.

    It’s great to see just how committed Skylar was to the role and here’s hoping that it’ll pay off with this series going on for many more years, as the story of One Piece is still being told after over 1,000 chapters. While the WGA may postpone any work on a second season and Netflix’s tendency to set very high standards for viewership, if there’s any project to accomplish it, it would be Eiichiro Oda’s work.

    Source: Twitter, Zero Nine

  • ‘Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead’ Coming to Hulu and Netflix

    ‘Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead’ Coming to Hulu and Netflix

    Viz Media announced today that Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is officially coming to the United States. The anime series, which is based on manga by creators Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata, will soon be available to stream on Netflix and Hulu. Per Viz Media, the series will simulcast on Hulu premiering 2:00AM PDT, July 9th, 2023, with sunrise details for Netflix and other streaming platforms to be announced.

    The production hails from Shogakukan and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Japan, with VIZ Media representing the anime in the North America, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand territories. It stars Shuichiro Umeda as Akira Tendo and Tomori Kusunoki as Shizuka.

    The official synopsis for the series is as follows:

    With three years under his belt at the company from hell, Akira Tendo is mentally and physically spent. All at the ripe old age of twenty-four. Even his crush from Accounting, Saori, wants nothing to do with him. Then, just when life is beginning to look like one big disappointment, it happens. The zombie apocalypse descends on Japan! Surrounded by hordes of hungry zombies, Akira comes to a realization that will forever change his life…

           “Wait, does this mean I never have to go to work again?”

    Confess to… party like it’s… travel Japan coast to…

    Now, with his nightmare job no longer, Akira’s got his mojo back. Let the bucket listing begin!!

    The series will feature an opening theme by KANA-BOON, as well as an ending theme by Shiyui. The anime is directed by Kazuki Kawagoe and features music by Makoto Miyazaki. Those interested in reading the manga can do so thanks to Shogakukan: Monthly Sunday Gene-X, which currently publishes the ongoing series.

  • ‘The Witcher’ Seemingly Already Renewed for Season 5

    ‘The Witcher’ Seemingly Already Renewed for Season 5

    Many believed that The Witcher would not live long with the upcoming third season being the final one of Henry Cavill in the role of Gerald of Rivia. His departure was heavy considering Cavill was extremely passionate about playing the character and loved the source material. While he’s not set to spearhead his own project with a Warhammer 40K adaptation for Amazon, there have been various discussions behind the scenes on why he left the project.

    Supposedly, he didn’t quite see eye to eye with the franchise’s direction, which was deviating more and more from the original novel series. While it’s not uncommon that changes are made in adaptations, it started heading into more original content than an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, as he even went on to sneak book moments in himself into the series.

    With him leaving, Liam Hemsworth is set to take over as Gerald and will take over starting Season 4. Surprisingly, it seems that we’re going to see a lot more of his Witcher with casting director Sophie Holland confirming they will be jumping straight into a fifth season once they finish the fourth one with him in the role.

    We’re just about to start filming on season four with Liam Hemsworth and there will be a short gap then we go straight into season five.

    Sophie Holland

    It’s surprising that the usual reserved Netflix isn’t going to wait and see what their audience size looks like once a new actor takes over. Perhaps, they fully believe in this project and the fifth season could be mapped out as a finale. They could run for quite some time and Netflix seems quite desperate to find a franchise that can carry momentum for a long time, but they keep floundering any chance by swiftly canceling projects that don’t perform to their high standards. We’ll have to see what they have in store beyond Cavill’s run with the character.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Resident Evil’ Actor Joins Live-Action ‘One Piece’ as Don Krieg

    ‘Resident Evil’ Actor Joins Live-Action ‘One Piece’ as Don Krieg

    Probably among the biggest missing pieces in the East Blue Saga was Don Krieg. The main antagonist during the Baratie arc was surprisingly absent in most of the cast announcements for the live-action One Piece series heading to Netflix sometime this year. After a long wait, it seems that he has finally been uncovered as Resident Evil and Raised by Wolves actor Milton Schorr is playing the iconic admiral of the Krieg Pirates, as uncovered first by @OP_Netflix_Fan and the One Piece Live Action discord.

    Krieg was among the many iconic villains that left quite an impression in the East Blue saga, especially with him being the first one to hint at the dangers of the Grand Line, Luffy’s main goal in reaching by the end of the saga. He also sets up a showcase of just how dangerous the world can be and that you can’t always trust everyone you come across.

    The only major member of his team missing is Gin, who plays a vital role in introducing Sanji’s main character arc. We might see his casting finally get confirmed at a later date, as most of these castings aren’t from Netflix directly but rather from the actors confirming their appearances through their personal CVs. So, who knows if they even planned to announce anyone else in the near future or just jump straight into the trailer and poster.

    Source: ArtistsOne

  • New Netflix Exhibition Shows Off Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Props

    New Netflix Exhibition Shows Off Live-Action ‘One Piece’ Props

    It’s feeling more and more like a trailer is on the horizon. Netflix’s live-action adaptation of One Piece has been teased since the beginning of the year with some beautiful posters, which only give us a glimpse of the Straw Hat crew. We did luckily see what the Going Merry looks like in live-action. It wasn’t until earlier this month on Monkey D. Luffy’s birthday that we finally got a letter from Oda teasing the live-action adaptation. Now, it seems that an exhibition in Harajuku named “Only on Netflix” is being held that shares some of the props from production.

    So far, it seems there are only two props being showcased. One is the iconic Straw Hat from Luffy, which seems quite close to the one we saw in the poster. While some have pointed out that it doesn’t seem to be made of straw, there’s a wide variety of materials that they may have used and there’s always a difference in how they make use of these props for when they film it. The other prop might be familiar to readers of the manga: it’s Luffy’s first hand-drawn design of his Jolly Roger.

    Of course, Usopp would go on to make one that fits the crew much better, but it’s a very one-to-one adaptation of what it looked like in the manga. So, we can expect a lot of different designs that might call back to what we saw in Eiichiro Oda’s original work. Here’s hoping we also get the infamous Nami Mermaid drawing that Luffy does. With TUDUM once again taking place in Brazil, they may carry over these props there but sadly it seems they only shared these two. Who knows if more will be showcased there?

    Source: One Piece, Twitter

  • ‘One Piece’ and ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Remain Absent in Netflix’s New Fall Schedule

    ‘One Piece’ and ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Remain Absent in Netflix’s New Fall Schedule

    It’s not easy being a fan of a Netflix show. Besides the never-ending expectation of any show you love getting canceled at any moment, there’s also he problem with Netflix’s very flighty way of handling its marketing for new shows. In their hunt for the next Squid Game or Stranger Things, the streamer relies on little marketing and hopes the show’s quality or built-in IP audience might push it to record heights.

    In Netflix’s first Upfront ever, they tried to sell advertisers on the fact that they are able to host ads on the service with their ad-supported tier with a “wide” audience interested in seeing them. As part of it, they did some surprising big announcements for renewals for Ginny & Georgine or Virgin River; potentially trying to counteract a current perception of their overall strategy.

    In a Fall Scheduled shared by Variety for Netflix, they include four new prestige dramas that include All the Light We Cannot See, Blue Eye Samurai, The Fall of the House of Usher, and Griselda. Comedy-wise they have Neon, Exploding Kittens, Obliderated, and The Vince Staples Show. Strangely enough, two of their biggest new IPs are still missing.

    So far, One Piece has been promoted surprisingly frequently for Netflix’s standards but there was no mention of the show’s release. It wasn’t part of the Fall line-up and is currently just set under “Coming Soon” alongside a variety of other projects. Joining it is Avatar: The Last Airbender, which hasn’t had any mention since production started a long time ago.

    It’s hard to say if they are part of the Fall schedule at all at this point or even if they still have a chance for a Summer release. One Piece at the moment has the best chances of a 2023 release, but Eiichiro Oda has stated he has the final say on if a project releases or not. So, they may just be waiting for that final “go” before giving it a set release date or timing window. Earlier this year they promised 2023, so it’s not like the series has been completely left on the wayside.

    It’s a big show with a very big international audience that has yet to grow stateside. So, they will likely want to jump in as much as they can once they have a more set with the current rumor still pointing to a late August release. Perhaps it’s not part of the Fall line-up as it’s still set as the big final push in the Summer line-up that mainly has The Witcher’s next season on the horizon going into June and July.

    Avatar: The Last Airbender, however, is still a mystery. We don’t even have an official logo or Twitter handle for the series based on a very popular brand. While the original creators left the project, you’d think they would still want to push it heavily nay way they could given the built-in audience but silence still remains their de facto strategy for this property.

    They aren’t the only ones, as 3 Body Problem is also suffering from a silent promotion since the brief tease in last year’s Geeked Week. That event also seemingly has been left behind with TUDUM returning for an in-person event but no official promotion of any kind of their live stream teasing their future slate. Netflix is adjusting to a post-COVID world but is still leaving many wondering what exactly is their strategy and why are they so silent on some of their biggest ventures moving forward.

    Source: Variety

  • Netflix’s Real-Life ‘Squid Game’ Eyeing November Release

    Netflix’s Real-Life ‘Squid Game’ Eyeing November Release

    Netflix’s first Upfront has come and gone with very little fanfare. They mainly focused on their ad-supported model and selling future advertisers that they should definitely invest in. Sadly, most of their future big projects are being left behind, there are some surprises like a double season renewal of Ginny & Georgina and Love is Blind surprisingly soon return later this year.

    Probably one of their biggest “IPs” is Squid Game. While Season 2 is still taking quite a bit of time to produce, it does seem like their upcoming reality show inspired by the anti-capitalism series (the irony still isn’t lost) will come sooner than expected. The series is set to premiere sometime this November, 17 months after it was given a green light.

    It’ll consist of ten parts and see players re-enact many of the iconic games from the original with the hope of winning the big prize. The last we heard about it was that some production issues had led to some concerns over the project. People go through hellish conditions to bring a simple concept to life. We’ll have to see how it turned out and with a potential November release, there’s still some time before any official trailer drops.

    Source: Deadline, Deadline

  • Den Den Murphy Episode 28 – More Live-Action ‘One Piece’ News

    Den Den Murphy Episode 28 – More Live-Action ‘One Piece’ News

    After a bit of a hiatus, Suki and Joe are back to talk all things One Piece. The excitement is rising with Netflix’s upcoming live-action adaptation of the popular manga series with an official statement by Eiichiro Oda. Not just that but the two also catch up on the manga, and discuss the new One Piece Odyssey DLC.

  • Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Cast Continues to Grow

    Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Cast Continues to Grow

    Is it perfect timing ahead of Netflix’s first attendance at the Upfronts that a variety of actresses and actors are revealing their involvement with Netflix’s live-action One Piece series? Probably not, but it’s a fun coincidence either way as a variety of new cast members have been unveiled.

    Once again, @OP_Netflix_Fan and the @OPLAfandom, whose discord you can check out by clicking here, have uncovered a slew of talent revealing their involvement with the upcoming series. Interestingly enough, while these are mainly supporting cast, there are some rather important cast members included.

    Let’s kick it off with the two biggest flashback characters. Mackenyu Arata’s younger self will seemingly be played by Maximilian Lee Piazza. He’ll take on the role of Zoro during the iconic flashback from the East Blue saga. It was rumored for quite some time since September of 2022, but it’s great to have a confirmation now. He’ll be joined by Audrey Cymone, who will take on the role of Kuina, Zoro’s childhood friend.

    We also seemingly have a casting for the role of Ririka, who is the mother of Rika and is set to be played by Nicole Fortuin. While she doesn’t have a major role in the story, she does appear in Zoro’s introduction arc in Shells Town. Yet, that is not all, as we also finally know who is the other half of the Nyaban Brothers (or Siblings rather) Albert Pretorius will take on the role of Buchi and star opposite Bianca Oosthuizen, who will play Sham.

    It’s great to get some more announcements and here’s hoping that the timing for them adding to the CV might have some meaning. We’ve been anxiously waiting for any details we can get our hands on nowadays, as the show’s release seems closer and closer with every day. While we don’t know if something will drop during the Upfronts, the hope is definitely alive going in and beyond.

    Source: Twitter, Instagram, APM (Ririka), APM (Buchi)