A Live-Action ‘Gundam’ Movie Is Coming to Netflix

Netflix has snagged another of the biggest sci-fi brands in the world: Gundam, the multimedia franchise that began as a late-1970s anime series called Mobile Suit Gundam and has since spawned endless other television series, cartoons, movies, books, comics, games, and an entire sub-world of the Japanese toy industry dedicated entirely to models based on the Gundam characters.

Now, working with Legendary, Netflix is producing their “first-ever live-action feature film version of Sunrise’s Gundam.” The film will be directed and produced by Kong: Skull Island’s Jordan Vogt-Roberts and written by Brian K. Vaughn, the writer of the comic series Y: The Last Man and Saga, as well as a writer on the TV series Lost and Under the Dome.

The streaming service announced the news via Twitter:

Vogt-Roberts has already commented on the news, retweeting an article on the announcement and adding “A tweet cannot begin to express how excited I am by this!”

Gundam gives Netflix what could a massive franchise to compete with the biggest series at the other major studios. It’s a proven brand with more than four decades of popularity and a worldwide audience. With enough money, a Gundam film could be as epic as any blockbuster that’s ever played in a movie theater. And if Netflix knows how to do one thing, it’s spending enormous amounts of money.

Gallery — The Best Netflix Movies of the Year: