Warner Bros. had previously grabbed May 21, 2021, placeholding the date with the "Untitled Event Film" moniker. Well, we now know that it will actually be Taika Waitii's live-action Akira film released on that date.
The release date comes as Waitii just dropped out of Netflix's film about Michael Jackson's pet monkey, Bubbles only the day before.
Previously, Waititi stated that he wanted to adapt Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira manga, not the TV anime.
"I haven’t really started to get my head around it yet. What I wanted to do was an adaptation of the books, ‘cos a lot of people are like, ‘Don’t touch that film!’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book.’ A lot of the people freaking out haven’t even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through. It’s so rich. But (the anime) Akira is one of my favorite films; my mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life.”
In terms of the differences between the Akira manga and anime film, the biggest changes are in regards to the titular characters final fate and the greater role for Number 19. The anime film generally remains faithful to the beginning of the manga before sacrificing several character development moments and side stories in order to advance the plot.