Did you know Toei and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions are working on a Saint Seiya live-action? Me neither, but apparently they've already finished filming it.
Starting in 1986, the series is about an orphan boy named Seiya who becomes a mystic warrior called Pegaus Seiya, one of 88 Saints who serve the goddess Athena. Throughout the years it's had a bunch of manga spin-offs, anime series and movies, and was first released outside Japan under the alternate title Knights of the Zodiac.
The movie will be called Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac and is based on the original 1986 series. The titular role will be played by Japanese actor Mackenyu, who's no stranger to anime live-actions. You may have seen him before as Okuyasu Nijimura in Takashi Miike's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Arata Wataya in the Chihayafuru movies and Yukishiro Enishi in Rurouni Kenshin: The Final. His first western movie appearance was in Pacific Rim: Uprising, but this will be his first leading role in Hollywood.
Other cast members include Madison Iseman, who got isekai'd into Jack Black in the Jumanji remake. She'll be playing Sienna, (Saori in the original) the reincarnation of Athena. Sean Bean will play Alman Kiddo, (Mistumasa Kido) the man who raised Sienna and many other orphans who later become Saints. Diego Tinoco from Netflix teen comedy On My Block will play a mysterious assassin sent to kill Sienna.
Those are the only confirmed roles so far; the remaining cast members are Mark Dacascos, (star of the 1995 Crying Freeman live-action movie), Nick Stahl, (Yellow Bastard in Sin City) and Famke Janssen (older Jean Grey in the X-Men live-actions). Finally, the movie will be directed by Polish director Tomasz Baginski, the executive producer of Netflix's The Witcher series who also directed the intro cutscenes in all three games.
To be honest I've never seen Saint Seiya, but after doing a little research it looks interesting enough to check out. The movie won't be out until 2023 at least, so there's plenty of time to catch up with the original anime so I can be extra disappointed when the movie inevitably isn't as good.
Do you guys think a live-action Saint Seiya will work? What are your thoughts on the cast? Let us know in the comments!
