A live-actionMy Hero Academiamovie is coming our way. Themanga serieshas seen a meteoric rise in popularity ever since it debuted in 2014. Writer Kohei Horikoshi’s manga was quickly adapted into a very popular anime series, which has led to animated features as well. The next step? Bringing his work to the world of live-action, and Legendary Pictures has signed on to do just that, in part thanks to a partnership with Toho, the producers of the JapaneseGodzillafranchise.
According to a new report, Legendary Pictures will produce theMy Hero Academiamovie and will distribute the movie throughout most of the world, withTohohandling distribution in Japan. Alex Garcia and Jay Ashenfelter are overseeing the project for Legendary, with Ryosuke Yoritomi overseeing on behalf of Shueisha, the publisher behind the manga series. At the present time, there is no word on who will board the core creative team in terms of a writer and/or director, nor is there any word on casting at the present time. Though, there are already quite a few fan suggestions for Dwayne Johnson as All Might.
The story ofMy Hero Academiapresents an interestingtwist within the superhero genre. In this universe, the majority of people have superpowers, known as quirks. The series hero, Izuku Midoriya, is without a quirk personally, but longs to become a hero. His life is changed forever when he meets his personal hero, the hulking All Might, who bequeaths unto Izuku a quirk of his own. With 80 percent of the population gifted with powers, are superheroes and supervillains all that special anymore? It’s certainly something different than we’ve been presented with up to this point in the comic book movie genre.
A live-action movie was an inevitability for the franchise. The manga has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide and theMy Hero Academiaanime series, which recently wrapped up its third season, has beenwildly popular throughout the world. Following the conclusion of the show’s third season, a feature-length movie, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, was released in theaters and, not only was it met with generally favorable reviews, but the movie grossed nearly $6 million at the box office, making it one of the most successful theatrical anime movies ever released domestically.
This won’t be Legendary’s first foray in bringing apopular animeto the big screen, as they haveDetective Pikachu, based on thePokemonfranchise, set to arrive in theaters next year as well. Legendary is also behind the current live-action Godzilla movies, which continues with next year’sGodzilla: King of the Monsters. So they seem to have a lock on bringing popular Japanese franchises to the English-speaking masses. For the time being, there is no word on a possible production timetable for theMy Hero Academiamovie, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted as more details on the project are made available. This was first reported byNerdist.
