Back in August 2016,
plans for a live-action Sword Art Online TV adaptation for the West were first revealed by Skydance Media. Since then, two high-profile Western anime adaptations (Death Note and Ghost in the Shell) were subject to a bit of controversy due to its perceived white-washing of the cast. Will the live-action
Sword Art Online TV series wade into the same murky depths of controversy or are they planning to cast Asian actors for the role of Kirito and Asuna?
Speaking to
Collider,
Altered Carbon executive producer Laeta Kalogridis, who's writing the pilot episode and showrunning the series, Kalogridis stated:
"Well, let’s get the obvious bit out of the way, right away. SAO is an essentially Japanese property, in which Kirito and Asuna, who are the two leads, are Japanese. In the television show, Kirito and Asuna will be played by Asian actors. Whether or not that was the question underneath your question, it’s not a conversation about whitewashing. When I sold it to Netflix, we were all on the same page. They are not interested in whitewashing it, and I am not interested in whitewashing it. In terms of the secondary characters, because the game is meant to be global, the way it’s presented in the anime and in the light novels, there are secondary characters that clearly are from other parts of the world, like Klein and Agil. To me, it’s very obvious when you watch it that you’re meant to take that this game spans the globe, but Kirito and Asuna are very clearly located as kids from Japan, and Tokyo, if I’m not mistaken. That is what we will be doing because that is the story. They are, in my mind anyway, much like Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell, defined in part by being seminal characters in an Asian piece of art. That’s the first and biggest thing."
It's good to hear that the series won't repeat the same missteps of recent anime adaptations but perhaps the most interesting reveal of Kalogridis' comments is the confirmation that the series is headed to Netflix. There's been no formal announcement from Netflix so it seems Kalogridis may have just leaked the news before the streaming giant was ready.