Lionsgate's live-action Naruto movie finally has an official green light, and Sony Pictures is on board to help pay for it! If you've been following this one from the beginning, you've heard a lot of promises by now. The studio first went after the rights back in 2015, and 11 years later there still isn't a single confirmed cast member.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news on November 3, and Deadline also reports that Lionsgate has officially greenlit the film. Sony is co-financing and will lead international distribution after what TheWrap calls a "highly competitive, multi-studio bidding war." Lionsgate still runs development and production and keeps the domestic release. Destin Daniel Cretton is writing, directing, and producing. As for filming, production is expected to begin in spring 2027, a little later than the "around February 2027" THR's sources had in August. No specific start date has been announced.
Why Sony? THR points out that the company is home to Crunchyroll, and that it just had a massive hit with Cretton onSpider-Man: Brand New Day, which has grossed more than $2.5 billion worldwide. Cretton also signed a three-year producing deal with the studio in September.
"At Sony, we are big believers in the global power of manga and anime in general and huge fans of Naruto in particular," Sony Motion Picture Group chief Tom Rothman said in the joint announcement. Lionsgate's Adam Fogelson promised a movie "that stays true to what millions of existing fans love," and Cretton, who calls himself a longtime fan, said the plan is "capturing everything fans love about Naruto while introducing it to a whole new generation."
Cretton has been saying similar things for months, telling Inverse that "we are staying very close to what Kishimoto-san created" and that "the biggest mistake we could do is bite off too much for one movie," as we covered back in July.
It's been a LONG road to get here!
The Tracking Board reported in July 2015 that Lionsgate had closed the rights and was talking to Michael Gracey about directing, with Avi and Ari Arad producing. A Jump Festa stage presentation in December 2016 confirmed Gracey was on it and that Masashi Kishimoto was involved. In 2017, THR reported that Red writers Jon and Erich Hoeber had been hired for a rewrite, and in 2018 Gracey said the team was still working on a script Kishimoto would approve.
Then things went mostly silent until Variety reported in November 2023 that Tasha Huo was writing the script, and Cretton came aboard in February 2024.
On July 9th, Lionsgate and Cretton opened a worldwide casting search for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, which Cretton announced on his Instagram. Check it out below!
A post shared by Destin Yori Daniel Cretton (@destindaniel)
Kishimoto's reaction was pretty great. "Right now, miracles are happening to me, one after another," he said at the time, adding, "I cannot wait to meet my characters in the film!"
What about the script? Variety had Tasha Huo on it in 2023, but Cretton was hired to write and direct in 2024, and THR, Deadline, and TheWrap all credit him as the writer this week with no mention of her. In a 2025 Nexus Point News interview, she talked about the challenge of making the story "real and believable" in live action after the interviewer mentioned she'd finished a script. Whether any of her work ends up in the final movie is something we don't know yet.
Lionsgate hasn't announced anyone for Team 7, and THR says the search for Naruto is still underway. The only name so far is Charles Melton, who THR reported in August was in final negotiations to play Kakashi Hatake. THR's new story still has him "in talks," but nothing has been officially announced.
There's no release date either. If cameras really do roll in spring 2027, it's doubtful that we'll see it before 2028.
What do you think? Does having Sony on board get you more excited for this movie after 11 years of waiting? Who do you want to see as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura?
Sound off in the comments below!
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