As expected, Keith Stanfield will be portraying L in Netflix's live-action Death Note film. The TV and film streaming platform announced the cast for the Adam Wingard directed adaptation, which is scheduled to hit theaters in 2017. The full cast includes, Nat Wolff as Light Turner, Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire) as James Turner, Paul Nakauchi (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as Watari and Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers) as Mia Sutton.
Jeremy Slater (unused Fantastic Four script) penned the most recent draft of the script.
Death Note is a 2003 Japanese manga from writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata. The series concluded in 2006 at 12 volumes. An anime adaptation began airing in 2006 and concluded in 2007 at 37 episodes. A live-action Japanese film trilogy was first released in theaters in 2006, with the third and final film releasing in 2008. A new Japanese film, Death Note: Light Up the New World, will tell an original story set 10 years after the conclusion of the first trilogy. Hollywood has been attempting to make their own live-action Death Note film since 2007. Warner Bros. acquired film rights in 2009 and hired Shane Black to direct in 2011. However, the project languished in development hell at WB, who let their rights lapse. Netflix secured filming rights in April 2016 and quickly set the project into production.