Legendary Pictures announced plans for a live-action Gundam film back in 2019, signing fan-favorite writer Brian K. Vaughan to pen the script. Two years later, the project has found a home and a director.
Netflix has revealed that they will be teaming up with Legendary Pictures on the project and that Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts will be directing the feature.
Mobile Suite Gundam was created in 1979 by Yoshiyuki Tomino as an original anime at Sunrise Studio. The series is credited with moving the mecha genre into the "real robot" era where mecha series focused on advanced yet conventional, futuristic giant robots as opposed to the earlier, "superhero robot" tones of earlier works like Mazinger Z and Tetsujin 28-go.
In both Japan and North America, Gundam is by far, the most popular mecha anime franchise having spawned an incredibly vast amount of manga, light novels, video games, TV anime, anime films and other media across the last four decades.
With Netflix having recently concluded its excellent Voltron anime series and Legendary seemingly sticking a fork in the live-action Pacific Rim films, the two companies recently pooled their talents to create a well-received Pacific Rim anime. It's possible that joint venture was a stepping stone for both parties to sign on for the Gundam film.
In addition to this project, Jordan Vogt-Roberts also has a live-action Metal Gear Solid film in development.