23 Years Later, The Most Cursed Sci-Fi Remake Just Fell Apart Again

Some projects get a reputation for being “unadaptable” because the story is too vast to be contained, while others earn the label because every attempt to recapture some old magic fails. But more often than not, attempts to adapt some beloved source material fall apart simply because things fail to connect behind the scenes, damning projects to the wastes of development hell. The latest victim is a remake of a classic animated film that had been in the works for over 20 years, but now may never happen at all.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has released the rights to Akira, the 1988 post-apocalyptic cyberpunk anime movie that stands as a pillar of the genre. Warner first hired Stephen Norrington, director of Blade (another project stuck in remake limbo), in 2002 to make a live-action version. But Norrington never got far, and dozens of writers and directors have come and gone since.

In 2019, Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi was announced as the remake’s most recent director and co-writer. He reassured fans that he wouldn’t whitewash the project, and that he wanted to offer his take on the sprawling manga rather than just remake the movie shot-for-shot. But Waititi has since gained a reputation for signing onto projects that don’t materialize, like his Star Wars movie, a Flash Gordon movie, and two different Netflix animated series. Suddenly, he was working on Thor: Love and Thunder, Jojo Rabbit, and The Mandalorian, and Akira was taken off the release schedule.

By not renewing the rights, Warner Bros. is essentially ending the project, although with the rights reverting back to manga publisher Kodansha, any other studio can acquire them and potentially do what Warner Bros. couldn’t. They could even return to Sony, which acquired the rights to the original manga all the way back in the ‘90s. It does feel like live-action Akira is always doomed to fail, and given how fans feel about it, that might be for the best. But in an age where a previously impossible anime like One Piece can get a live-action Netflix series, anything remains possible.

Akira is streaming on Crunchyroll.