Jordan Vogt-Roberts Set to Direct ‘Gundam’ Live-Action Movie Adaptation at Netflix

Jordan Vogt-Roberts has been set to direct and produce Legendary’s first-ever live-action feature film version of Sunrise’s GUNDAM for Netflix. The film was announced back in 2018 by Legendary with Brian K. Vaughan tapped as a writer in 2019.

Brian K. Vaughan is also executive producing the project with Cale Boyter overseeing on behalf of Legendary with the Sunrise creative team.

The massively popular Mecha anime and science fiction media franchise is Sunrise’s multi-billion-dollar property that was created in 1979 and has spawned a multi-platform universe encompassing televised anime, manga, animated films, video games, plastic models, toys, and novels among other media. Gundam continues to dominate Bandai Namco’s earnings almost forty years after its inception.

The story for the live-action film version of Gundam is being kept under wraps but 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. 

The battles in the story, in which the characters pilot robots known as mobile suits, are wildly popular. The Gundam universe is replete with numerous storylines of love and conflict along with the popular Gundam battles, in which the characters operate robot suits called Mobile Suits.

Vogt-Roberts previously collaborated with Legendary to direct the certified fresh 2017’s KONG: SKULL ISLAND, which went on to make more than $566 million at the worldwide box office. Legendary will distribute the film theatrically in China.