When it comes to sagas involving giant robots, they don’t get much bigger than Gundam. The robot, which was most recently seen in Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, is finally getting a live-action Hollywood movie from the folks behind Pacific Rim, Jurassic World, and Kong: Skull Island.
Legendary and Gundam’s Sunrise made the announcement at Anime Expo 2018. Gundam basically wrote the book on the entire mecha genre with its launch in 1979 by Yoshiyuki Tomino. The franchise has expanded to include manga, anime, video games, and novels, with its influence spread far and wide. Details on the movie are scarce, but the official press release does a good job of encapsulating the Gundam universe…
The original Gundam series is set in the Universal Century, an era in which humanity’s growing population has led people to emigrate to space colonies. Eventually, the people living in the colonies seek their autonomy, and launch a war of independence against the people living on Earth. Through the tragedies and discord arising from this human conflict, not only the maturation of the main character, but also the intentions of enemies and the surrounding people are sensitively depicted.
I have questions. This won’t go the way of the forever-teased Robotech movie, will it? When will Legendary give us the Pacific Rim/Gundam/Godzilla crossover we fans deserve? And who is the lucky chap who will play Gundam’s most awesome villain, Char Aznable?
