Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Netflix

  • Netflix Shares Viewership Numbers for the First Time

    Netflix Shares Viewership Numbers for the First Time

    Streaming may be about to change forever, as Netflix has suddenly offered insight into how much their shows and films are being viewed. Not just that, they promise this to be a regular occurrence. Other streaming services have been coy on sharing any data, as the market hasn’t required it. Yet, as they continue to grow this is a massive jump for transparency and might also shift the market in a new direction, as streaming becomes more dominant.

    The goal for Netflix is to report how many hours were spent on the top 10 TV shows and movies, which includes original and licensed offerings. The first numbers offered some insight into their latest release Red Notice with Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds, and Dwayne Johnson spearheading. In its first week of release, it had garnered around 149M hours of viewing time. Narcos: Mexico was the most-watched English-speaking series with 50M hours. Squid Game did take the top spot, however, for a non-English series with around 43M after being available for some time.

    It’s a great development, but it opens the question of whether others will be willing to share their data as openly. Newer streaming services are facing enough hardship. So, transparency might streamline the market and showcase what investments are proven successful. This move does also feels like a follow-up to 2021’s long-winded discussion regarding simultaneous releases and how effective they truly are. We’ll keep an eye on future developments.

    Source: Financial Times

  • Netflix Shares ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Set Photo as Production Starts

    Netflix Shares ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Set Photo as Production Starts

    It looks like the turbulent developmnet hell surrounding Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender has come to an end. Hot off the heels of casting Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai and Paul Sun-Hyung as Uncle Iroh, the streaming service announced on their Twitter profile that they’ve officially entered production with a cute picture of the cast on the set. Sadly, they aren’t showing anything quite yet but it’s great to know that after its turbulent history, such as the creators existing the showing last year over creative differences, they are finally at a point for the series to kick-off filming.

    Showrunner Albert Kim also shared his excitement on finally entering production on this project on Twitter:

    The cast certailny looks excited and overall casting has been quite promising. It’s uncertain how long they might be in productiona nd when we can expect thes eries to release. Considering it’ll be effects heavy, we might have to wait for some time before we get too see their take on these iconic animated characters. Still, it’s good to finally get a confirmation that the project is moving forward and here’s hoping they’ll tease the cast in their costumes in the near future.

    Source: Twitter

  • Paul Sun-Hyung Lee Cast as Uncle Iroh in Netflix’s ‘Avatar’

    Paul Sun-Hyung Lee Cast as Uncle Iroh in Netflix’s ‘Avatar’

    Avatar is one of the most beloved animated series of all time. It tells the story of Aang, the very last Airbender, as he travels the four nations with his companions and masters all four elemental bending techniques. The show returned to Netflix last year and brought back a wave of nostalgia for many, who soon remembered Netflix was in development on a live-action adaption, piquing the interest of many.

    In the past couple of weeks, the adaption has begun adding to its cast, some known and some new to the scene. An addition that all have been waiting for is the role of Uncle Iroh, the uncle of Prince Zuko, and one of the series most important and loved characters. The Mandalorian and Kims Convenience Star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee has been officially cast in the role of Uncle Iroh. Along with that casting, Ken Leung has joined as Admiral Zhao with Lim Kay Siu cast as Monk Gyatso.

    It’ll be interesting to see how the series adapts the first book and if it changes any backstories to better fit within the shorter episode run. The series has been pretty on the spot with its recent castings, and Lee as Iroh is quite a great addition.

    Lee, Leung, and Siu join Gordon Cormier as Aang, Dallas Liu as Zuko, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Kiawentiio Tarbell as Katara, and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai. Albert Kim will serve as showrunner on the series following the departure of original series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante Dimartino.

    Source: The Wrap

  • ‘Cowboy Bebop’ is an Important Stepping Stone for Live-Action Anime

    ‘Cowboy Bebop’ is an Important Stepping Stone for Live-Action Anime

    The first reviews have hit for Cowboy Bebop. Netflix’s latest attempt at a live-action adaptation has arrived and might just be the beginning of their future venture. There’s a noticeable trend among many that the series doesn’t quite live up to the original, which it doesn’t, and in many ways never could. Yet, there’s something rather interesting surrounding the discussion of it. The inspiration of that very discussion is a simple question on the live-action adaptations reasoning to exist, such as how Brian Lloyd of entertainment.ie put it in his review: “Why bother with this when the original anime is on Netflix?”

    It’s a fair question, especially with many adaptations, especially of anime, seemingly not living up to the highs of the original. Netflix kind of pushed this very question when it announced that the original 1999 anime was going to release ahead of their live-action adaptation. If they’re going to provide the classic, why invest all that money into a separate adaptation that will very likely never live up to the original due to the relevance it holds to this day. Hell, they’re going even further with a live-action adaptation planned for other beloved classic anime like One Piece, Pokémon, and even Mobile Suit Gundam.

    Cowboy Bebop review: Netflix's adaptation has heart, style, and some rough edges - The Verge

    The series is far from where we were with projects like Death Note or the best-forgotten Dragonball Evolution. In a way, there’s a long path ahead of any of these adaptations due to fan expectations. It took years before Marvel Studios got to the point that they create believable adaptations of their comics that don’t fall into the valley of ridiculous. I mean, could you imagine ten years ago that we’ll have a film featuring a wizard traveling through the multiverse potentially facing a Lovecraftian tentacle monster as a May-opening blockbuster? We’re at a point where no one proclaims anymore: “Why not just read the comics?” but rather: “How and when will they adapt this story?” The curiosity has spread to those that don’t even read comics and created a new generation of potential readers.

    Cowboy Bebop took risks while also trying to play it safe. It’s kind of almost every adaptation does, but there’s a spark there of people that loved the original. It doesn’t always translate so easily but it does inspire. Even if this series isn’t perfect, it’s something that’ll introduce people that otherwise would have no interest in it. Yes, the original anime is available but not everyone is willing to watch everything that is out there. Countless people still downplay the relevance of storytelling through animation outside of the classic Pixar or Disney films. Anime has become more mainstream, but there’s a strong focus on specific franchises rather than the genre as a whole. Just like people didn’t take comics seriously due to it just being for “kids” for quite some time.

    Cowboy Bebop review: "A stellar remix that hits all the right notes" | GamesRadar+

    To give an example, One Piece is a deep series of characters going through extreme hardships at times, but its cartoony exterior may keep many from wanting to check it out. The same might go for those that may be a little anxious about the more methodical pace of the original Cowboy Bebop. It’s a bounty-of-the-week series that is more philosophical and far beyond classic understandings of genre. While streamlining this story may feel far removed from the original and make you question its existence, its easier-to-digest nature is a gateway for those unwilling to check out something they may have trivialized as a “cartoon from Japan.” A flawed adaptation that comes from the right place and made by fans of the original will play an integral part as the first stepping stone where quality meets intention.

    Source: Entertainment.ie

  • Taz Skylar Teases Sanji’s Kicks for Netflix ‘One Piece’ Series

    Taz Skylar Teases Sanji’s Kicks for Netflix ‘One Piece’ Series

    Just recently, we finally found out who the actors are that’ll play the live-action versions of the Straw Hats in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of One Piece. The story will explore the East Blue, which means we’ll get introduced to the first five members of the crew. Among them is Taz Skylar, who’ll take on the role of chef extraordinaire, Sanji. While future Zoro, Mackenyu, has quite a bit of experience with sword fighting through his work on Rurouni Kenshin: The Final to bring his character to life, Skylar has quite the challenge ahead of him to bring the signature kick-only style of Sanji to life.

    We’re still waiting for an official start of the production, but To showcase what he’s been working on, the actor took to Instagram to share his training. As Instagram Stories are only limited for a certain amount of time, @OP_Netflix_Fan was nice enough to provide the video of his training. The actor is certainly excited about the role and is sharing it with others through his page.

    We’ve seen others do the same, such as the future Luffy, Iñaki Godoy, sharing his research on Instagram. We saw the excitement for the cast in the announcement video, especially Emily Rudd, who’s a long-time Nami fan, wearing a necklace with her character’s name on it and Jacob Romero Gibson shouting some classic lines. Skylar has actively teased some inspiration, such as British chef Marco Pierre White being one of his inspirations for his take on the character in a previous post. He’s also actively interacting with the fanbase, which is always great to see. Here’s hoping the wait for any future announcement isn’t too far now.

    Source: Instagram, Instagram (White)

  • EXCLUSIVE: Character Breakdowns & Start Date for Netflix’s ‘XO Kitty’

    EXCLUSIVE: Character Breakdowns & Start Date for Netflix’s ‘XO Kitty’

    Last month, Netflix officially ordered XO Kitty, a spinoff from the To All the Boys… films, to series. While the books are based on the bestselling series by author Jenny Han, XO Kitty appears to be an original series that came about because of the movies and their popularity. Han is the TV series creator and co-wrote the pilot script with fellow author, Siobhan Vivian.

    XO Kitty stars Anna Cathcart, who reprises her role as Kitty Song Covey from the hit Netflix films. While little is known regarding XO Kitty, we here at Murphy’s Multiverse can confirm production will kick off in March of 2022 and go through May 2022 in South Korea. We can also confirm that the series is looking to fill six main roles.

    First up is the role of Dae. The character is a 17-year-old Korean male who speaks fluent English and Korean. He does, however, have a slight accent when speaking English. Dae is Kitty’s long-distance boyfriend and is described as being cute and smart.

    Next up is Jina Han. The character is described as a Korean female in her mid-40s. She is the matriarch of the Han family, and reputation means everything to her. Han is devoted to her husband, a CEO, and makes sure not to overindulge. She is the Principal of the International Korean high school. The role is a series regular role with the character appearing in seven out of ten episodes.

    The series is also looking to cast the roles of Min Ho, Q, Alex Park and Professor Lee. Min Ho is described as a 17-year-old Korean male or Korean expat. He’s handsome, confident and a millionaire playboy. He is afraid of commitment and can appear standoffish. This is a series regular role, with the production seeking an actor 18-year-old or older for the role.

    Next up is Q, a 17-year-old male from Afraid or the Middle East. The character identifies as Queer and is fluent in English, although he has an accent. He’s sociable, tall, muscular and athletic with a winning smile. Physically an alpha, but extroverted in every other sense. This is for a series regular role. The production is seeking an actor 18-year-old or older for the role who can authentically portray LGBTQ+.

    Alex Park is a Korean-American male expat in his late 20s. He is handsome and the brand-new chemistry teacher at the International Korean high school. Park serves as the dorm advisor and quickly gains a reputation as a cool, mellow teacher. He serves as a mentor figure to Kitty. While he’s a beloved teacher, Park has ulterior motives for taking the job at the school. Series regular role to appear in seven out of ten episodes.

    Finally, there’s Professor Lee who is a Korean male or Korean expat. He speaks both Korean and English and is in his early 40s or 50s. He’s a stuffy, by-the-book literature teacher who insists students abide by the rules. He’s a perennial bachelor who has lived on the campus for the last twenty years. Series regular role to appear in seven out of ten episodes.

    XO Kitty focuses on teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey who thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. But when she moves halfway across the world (Korea) to reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, she’ll soon realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it’s your own heart on the line. Han, the author of the To All the Boys… books, will serve as co-showrunner alongside Sascha Rothchild.

    As of now, XO Kitty does not yet have a release date on Netflix.

  • Zoya Akhtar Will Direct ‘The Archies’ Indian Adaption for Netflix

    Zoya Akhtar Will Direct ‘The Archies’ Indian Adaption for Netflix

    The Archies are coming to life thanks to director Zoya Akhtar.

    Per Variety, Akhtar will direct a live-action musical take on The Archies that takes place in 1960s India. The project will be produced by Akhtar and Reema Kagti for Tiger Baby and Sharad Devarajan for Graphic India. Plans for ‘Archie in Bollywood’ adaptions were first announced in 2018. This will mark the first of those projects to come to fruition.

    For Akhtar, the chance to adapt The Archies is exciting. “I am super excited to have the chance to bring ‘The Archies’ to life. It was a large part of my childhood and teenage years,” she explained. “The characters are iconic and globally loved, which is also why I am a little nervous. I have to make sure the film stokes the nostalgia of a generation that grew up on the comic and yet resonates with the young adults today.”

    The Archies will mark the first international comic to be translated for Indian screens. As it stands, the project is still in the early stages and a release date has not yet been unveiled. The live-action film will reimagine classic characters like Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Moose and Jughead with an Indian cast, while still featuring elements of the comics.

    “We are supremely excited to partner with the great team at Graphic India to bring Archie and his friends to Bollywood,” Jon Goldwater, Archie Comics CEO, said in a statement to Variety. “Archie’s lasting and growing presence in India made this move the logical next step as our stellar library of characters continues to expand into other media. It’s a major moment for Archie and its fans around the world.”

    Source: Variety.

  • Iñaki Godoy Excited to Play ‘One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy

    Iñaki Godoy Excited to Play ‘One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy

    After a long wait, the official cast has finally dropped for the live-action adaptation of popular manga series, One Piece. Netflix has quite the undertaking with it being one of the most successful series, but mangaka Eiichiro Oda has an active role in the casting process, as he even shared an official statement alongside the official cast list. In the leading role, young actor Iñaki Godoy will play the Straw Hat’s captain Monkey D. Luffy. Of course, there’s a lot of excitement with what they can offer to bring these characters to life and the actor took to his Instagram account to share his excitement and love for the character.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CWGkyfmrPIT/?utm_medium=copy_link

    The role won’t be an easy one. Luffy is one of the most iconic main characters in Shonen Jump’s history and he’ll have the weight of over 1,000 chapters of character development, while actually only exploring his earliest adventures on the East Blue. He certailny looks like he is doing his research with some of the manga, figurines (most notably of Gol D. Roger mixed in there) and more to highlight he is diving deep into what the franchise has to offer. Godoy showed his carefree excitement in the first tease of the cast, which already teased he might be the perfect chioce for the role. Here’s hoping we don’t wait long until we get the crew in their outfits as they slowly start production.

    Source: Instagram

  • First Look at Netflix’s ‘Gundam’ Concept Art

    First Look at Netflix’s ‘Gundam’ Concept Art

    There’s been a strong push for anime adaptations as of late. Just today, we got the reveal of Netflix’s One Piece live-action cast. We’re only a week away from Cowboy Bebop getting released. So, there’s still a lot more heading our way including Kong: Skull Island‘s Jordan Vogt-Roberts live-action adaptation of the popular series Mobile Suit Gundam. While it’s uncertain when the film will release, Netflix Festival Japan offered a first look at the project with new concept art of the famous RX-78-2 Gundam model.

    The background shows a warehouse or hangar on fire while the center depicts shadowy image of the main Gundam from concept art from Jordan Vogt-Roberts' upcoming Mobile Suit Gundam live-action film.

    It certainly looks quite impressive. We don’t know how much the upcoming film will explore space battle or try to keep the giant mechs a bit more grounded. As most of the background is covered in flames, it’s hard to say if this is part of a ship or maybe even the factory it was built. Still, it’s certainly a promising first look provided by ILM Art during the festival. Vogt-Roberts has a very distinctive visual style that lends itself quite well to this kind of adaptation. Here’s hoping we get more in the future and a production update, as the director is also still planning to tackle a Metal Gear Solid film at some point.

    Source: Netflix Festival Japan via Nerdist

  • Eiichiro Oda Shares His Excitement for Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Cast

    Eiichiro Oda Shares His Excitement for Netflix’s ‘One Piece’ Cast

    Barely an hour ago, the official One Piece cast has accidentally leaked early. So, it didn’t take long for the official pages to catch up and confirm the cast. Iñaki Godoy, Emily Rudd, Jacob Romero Gibson, Taz Skyler, and Mackenyu will play the Straw Hats that joined during the East Blue saga before they entered the Grand Line. Of course, series creator Eiichiro Oda was heavily involved in the project and shared his excitement on the cast alongside a new drawing of Luffy.

    We don’t know how long ago they were cast in the roles, but it looks like they had quite a tight schedule to get everything out in time. Alongside the announcement, we also got a special little video from the cast sharing their excitement about tackling these roles in a shirt made by Eiichiro Oda to celebrate the casting.

    https://twitter.com/onepiecenetflix/status/1458192148642234371

    Showrunner Steven Maeda and executive producer Matt Owens also shared their enthusiasm on finally getting the cast together to bring these iconic characters to life in the Netflix series.

    Finding the right people to pull off the looks, emotions, and actions of the iconic Straw Hats was a long and challenging (and fun!) process. Much like the search for the One Piece itself. But we have finally found the perfect fits! They have already begun working very hard to bring these characters to life. You will come to know and love them just as much as their manga counterparts. All of us can’t wait to show you what we’ve come up with! Onward to adventure!

    It’s certainly been a long wait until we finally got an official casting or any information on the series. There are still some supporting characters that we haven’t heard about yet. We still don’t know when they’ll enter production and what the release schedule is, but we might be looking at a late 2022 or early 2023 premiere. Here’s hoping with this news out there, we might get more insight as time goes on.

    Source: Twitter