Is Death Note 2 Still Happening At Netflix Or Has Its Name Been Written In The Book?
Netflix's track record with producing live-action anime is mixed, at best. The streamer's "One Piece" series has already been renewed, but the live-action "Cowboy Bebop" was a swiftly-canceled mess.
Their most infamous project, however, is probably "Death Note." This story, first told by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata in a mega-popular manga, focuses on the Japanese teenager Light Yagami. One day, a notebook falls from the sky into Light's lap. Dropped by a Shinigami (a Japanese death god) named Ryuk, the "death note" will kill anyone whose name is written on its pages. Light decides to purge the world of evil by using the Death Note to kill high-profile criminals, becoming a serial killer himself in the process. Dubbed "Kira" (a Japanese pronunciation of "Killer"), he gains allies (deludedly loyal pop idol Misa Amane) and adversaries (eccentric master detective L).
This 2017 film, directed by Adam Wingard, transposed this story to Seattle. This Americanization resulted in Light Turner (Nat Wolff) and "Mia Sutton" (Margaret Qualley). L (LaKeith Stanfield) and Ryuk (Willem Dafoe) come through closer to their original incarnations. But thanks to the whitewashing and plenty of other problems, the reviews for "Death Note" were not kind. As for fans? They hated it so much that Wingard deleted his Twitter account after harassment from some.
However, there was talk about a sequel even before release; Wingard pitched "Death Note" to Netflix as a "two-film series, maybe three." The first film was apparently a "sizable success," per Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos — though without Netflix releasing viewership numbers, we can't know how sizable — and word about a sequel first came in August 2018. What's happened since?
Development stuck in the Shinigami Realm
Greg Russo was the announced writer of Netflix's "Death Note" sequel, taking over from the first film's credited writers (Jeremy Slater and brothers Charley & Vlas Parlapanides). In 2020, Russo told his Twitter followers that writing the sequel was "consuming a large part of [his] life right now."
It's consuming a large part of my life right now. I'm hellbent on giving DN fans something new, exciting and unexpected. Stay tuned. #DeathNote #Netflix 🍎 https://t.co/Y3DDSjIu3Z
— Greg Russo (@WriterRusso) September 30, 2020
While on the press tour for 2021's "Mortal Kombat" (which he co-wrote), Russo told We Got This Covered:
"I'm a huge fan of the original source material and I think it's one of the greatest mangas ever written. And so for me, I didn't play any role in 'Death Note,' the first film that Netflix did, but I came in with kind of a point of view with what I wanted to do in a sequel. And part of that is I wanted to go back to the source material. I wanted to go back to what made the original stuff so great, and so we're doing something really neat with it. Hopefully, there will be more info on it soon."
No more info did come, aside from producer Masi Oka promising in 2021 that they were "listening to the fans" with the sequel's direction.
In July 2022, it was confirmed that the Duffer Brothers ("Stranger Things") would be developing a live-action "Death Note" TV series for Netflix. Writer Halia Abdel-Meguid is on board as well. Little more about the project has been revealed, but it seems to have taken the place of Russo's film sequel. While Netflix's interest in "Death Note" is alive and well, developing two versions of the story simultaneously would be overkill.