Production on the live-action Cowboy Bebop was well underway and might have even wrapped up before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown TV productions around the globe. Unfortunately, series star John Cho injured his knee/ACL rehearsing a stunt back in October. Filming on the project had seemingly just begun but in a recent interview with SYFY, executive producer Marty Adelstein revealed that the film crew has managed to shoot 6 episodes and that to date, 3 episodes are fully complete with finished VFX. The first season was previously confirmed to consist of 10 episodes.
"So, we have finished three episodes. I think we’re into [shooting] six; then John Cho tore his ACL, unfortunately. But I have to tell you I really like the show. It’s really fun," explained Adelstein. He continued, "And we have gone out of our way, because of all these anime movies that have come out and been accused of being whitewashed, we have really gone out of our way. We have the original composer, Yoko Kanno, doing music. The characters are all sort of multiethnic, and it’s a great cast. And the two episodes I have seen are so much fun. It’s really fun."
As for One Piece, Netflix's over big live-action anime adaptation, Adelstein shared, "We were supposed to start filming in August in Cape Town, South Africa. We anticipate the date being able to film [now is] September, at the latest. We have basically all 10 scripts written. We will start casting when we go back. My suspicion is June 1, but we will start doing our casting. We have a lot of names that we’re talking about, and we should be in production in September. We have been working very closely with Sensei Oda. So, we’re going to get started, and this one is very big. I mean, Snowpiercer was a big production; this is even bigger."
Neither One Piece or Cowboy Bebop had confirmed release dates prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it hard to speculate when either show will debut on the streaming platform. However, it's probably safe to say that given these trying times, neither show will debut before the end of 2020.