Netflix has canceled Cowboy Bebop after one season. The announced cancellation comes less than three weeks after the show was released on the streamer. The Hollywood Reporter says that the live-action take on the popular anime series was canceled due to poor reception. Only 46 percent of critics gave the series a positive review and only 56 percent of the audience was impressed. While the show garnered almost 74 million viewing hours worldwide, it plummeted 59 percent for the week of November 29 to December 5. This is the latest attempt at live-action anime, and while it may not have been as massive a failure as Dragonball Evolution or Death Note, it still fell remarkably short of satisfying generated hype. Some of the mainstays on the show have expressed disappointment but acceptance regarding the show’s cancellation, with co-executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach grieving that they couldn’t make the second season they had planned out and hoped to make.
Cowboy Bebop is widely considered to be one of the best anime series ever released. The live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop was announced in 2017 with John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, and Daniella Pineda as three bounty hunters. The announced live-action series generated much hype given the popularity of the anime. However, after years of hype, the series proved to be a disappointment.
The Nerd Stash’s own Nathan Franklin found some felt there was a level of fun to the live-action Cowboy Bebop, hammy acting and deviations from the source material proved to be problematic. While the review was a positive one, Franklin acknowledged that the adaptation was riddled with flaws.
We want to hear from you. Are you surprised by Netflix saying Cowboy Bebop is canceled so quickly after only three weeks? Would you have wished to see more? Why do you think the series fell so short of success? Let us know in the comments.