First announced back in 2016, the live-action
Sword Art Online series from Skydance Entertainment has finally found a home. Laeta Kalogridis, the executive producer for
Altered Carbon, who also wrote an early (but not the final) draft of the
Ghost in the Shell screenplay and also wrote
Alita: Battle Angel,
confirmed to Collider that the series has been sold to Netflix.
Of course, the streaming giant angered the anime community with its treatment of
Death Note, transporting the setting from Tokyo to Seattle, Washington and "whitewashing" the cast.
It's unknown just how far in the development process the project has progressed but it's likely Netflix will be taking its time with this one given the poor reception for Death Note and the significant VFX needed to depict the various worlds of the NerveGear. Casting is likely a long ways off, however, Kalogridis has confirmed that Kirito and Asuna
will indeed be Asian actors.
A video game whiz helps create a new technology that enables players to guide their online avatars with their own bodies -- but a dark twist emerges.
In this engaging anime series, thousands of players get trapped in an online role-playing game, where death in the game means death in the real world.