Mega Man Adaptation Is Coming To Netflix

It's a veritable arms race out there when it comes to live-action adaptations of video game franchises, and no studio wants to get left behind in the shuffle. Paramount+ is going all-in on "Halo" to deliver the definitive adaptation, Amazon certainly appears to be gearing up for a potential "Mass Effect" series (with or without a very interested Henry Cavill in tow), and we all know about Illumination partnering up with Nintendo to do, well, whatever they're doing with Mario. Earlier this year, Netflix confirmed their plans for a "Resident Evil" series and are already committed to an "Assassin's Creed" show as well, despite both properties receiving live-action movie adaptations in recent years. Now, after a few years of uncertainty, Netflix is reportedly setting their sights on Capcom's "Mega Man."

"Mega Man" hasn't exactly had the smoothest journey to this point, to say the least. Back in 2015, we first heard that (the now Disney-owned) 20th Century Fox was moving forward with a feature film adaptation of the popular Capcom video game series, though that was followed by a period of radio silence before finding out that the co-writer of "The Batman," Matt Tomlin, would be involved with the script. In the three years since, there's been another studio turnover as we've now learned that Netflix is currently leading the charge along with Chernin Entertainment to finally bring "Mega Man" to our screens. 

This latest report comes from IGN, who have confirmed an earlier article by Comic Book. The project is described to be "very early in development" and hasn't officially been confirmed by Netflix at the time of this writing. However, it would appear that the production company Supermarché has spilled the beans themselves, as their official website includes a very eye-catching tidbit nestled among its "About Us" section. It reads, in part:

"Henry [Joost], Rel [Ariel Schulman], and their in-house producer Orlee-Rose Strauss maintain an active development slate. Features in the works include an adaptation of Capcom's 'Mega Man' for Chernin Entertainment and Netflix, which they wrote and are directing."

This lines up with prior information pointing towards the writing/directing pair's involvement with this property back when it was still with 20th Century Fox, both of whom previously worked on "Catfish" and "Nerve." Clearly, it would appear that at least the core creative team has been retained despite the significant changeover in the time since. Stay tuned for more information as it comes in.