It's finally happening, what a way to kick off AX 2018!
An announcement at Anime Expo 2018, currently underway at the at the Los Angeles Convention Center, has revealed that a live-action Gundam film is in development from Sunrise and Legendary Pictures.
Legendary Pictures is the studio behind the Pacific Rim film series so at the very least, the mechs will look amazing.
Details about the plot are being kept under wraps at the moment, but Legendary is said to be working very closely with the team at Sunrise.
The big question on the mind of anime fans will be where will the film start?
The giant robot (mecha) anime series is quite dense, having produced numerous mangas, video games, anime series, book, and action figures.
Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979, Mobile Suit Gundam is the first entry in the series and is set in the fictional, Universal Century 0079 (the year 2179) and chronicles the war between the Principality of Zeon (space colonies) and the Earth Federation.
After the space colonies declare liberation from Earth, Zeon launches an assault and gains the upper hand (despite Earth's superior numbers) thanks to the deployment of a new weapon, giant humanoid robots called mobile suits. The conflict sets off the legendary battles between Zeon's masked-pilot Char Aznable and the Earth Federation's RX-78 Gundam pilot, Amuro Ray.
Since the initial anime series in 1979, there have been 43 spinoffs and sequels.
Thanks to stints on Cartoon Network's Toonami afternoon programming block in the '90s and early 2000s, popular Gundam Anime in North America include G Gundam (1994) and Gundam Wing (1995). Most recently, 2015's Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans aired on a revived, Saturday night Toonami programming block.