A few days ago, it was
announced at Anime Expo 2018 that Sunrise and Legendary Pictures would be forming a collaboration that aims to bring Gundam on the big screen. While additional details and information about the upcoming project have not been released yet, this is definitely already shaping up to be one of the most ambitious anime to live-action projects in recent memory.
The announcement has been met with both positivity and skepticism from the Gundam community, with people either being excited to see a big budget Gundam production or pessimistic, as previous live-action adaptations of famous anime have fallen short so many times. With that in mind, here are some of our thoughts about this ambitious project.
The Abundance of Possible Timelines
While the announcement also contained a brief background on the Universal Century timeline, there is still a good chance that the upcoming Gundam film might still be set in a different timeline. There is an
abundance of timelines that the film can be set on. Along with the iconic and aforementioned Universal Century, possible timelines can include the Cosmic Era (SEED), Anno Domini (00), After Colony (Wing), Future Century (G Gundam), and even Advanced Generation (AGE).
Despite the abundance of
timelines in the Gundam franchise, it would not be surprising to see them create a new one for the film as well, which gives it a unique place in Gundam lore.
Next Big Movie Franchise?
With the financial success of the Michael Bay-directed Transformers movies, it has been seen that mecha can thrive in mainstream media (despite the Transformers movies declining in quality movie after movie). With a production company as big as Legendary Pictures, Gundam has the potential to be the next big multi-million-dollar movie franchise should the first one be a success.
A successful live-action adaptation would help bring Gundam to an even larger audience and could see a substantial increase in Gunpla and Blu Ray sales. Heck, we might be able to see even more new kit releases, more
games, and new series (possible
Crossbone Gundam anime?) should Gundam become a successful franchise.
Legendary Pictures has Big Mecha experience
Legendary Pictures is no stranger to bringing mecha to the big screen, as they are the studio behind the two
Pacific Rim movies, which have been successful in their own right. This can be a good sign for Sunrise, as they are collaborating with a studio that has experience, along with the budget to create a quality mecha film.
We’ve seen how Gundam can look good in a movie…
For people looking for evidence that Gundam can work on the big screen, look no further than the RX-78-2 Gundam
cameo on Ready Player One. The cameo may only last for a few minutes, but it sure offered a good amount of excitement for Gundam fans. Gundam is known for having a lot of action sequences that contain a lot of fast-paced animation. With Ready Player One showing that it can be done using CGI, we can be at least assured that the upcoming film can give fans some awesome mecha action.
… then again, we know how bad it can look as well
On the other side of the spectrum, there has been an attempt at creating a live-action Gundam movie in the past, and that came in the form of
G-Saviour. While the CGI of the film is not bad for its time, the acting and low-budget feel of the movie made it arguably the worst received Gundam-related media.
While the upcoming film may have the budget to prevent itself from becoming a B-movie disaster, G-Saviour serves as a reminder to a lot of fans that things can go wrong when not done right.
Takeaway
Gundam has been one of the most popular mecha franchises over the last four decades, and it is about time that they try bringing it to Hollywood after a good number of attempts. Should the upcoming film be a success, it can help bring the franchise to an even bigger audience and become a massive film franchise.
Frankly, we can sum up our thoughts with a few simple words: PLEASE DON’T SUCK!
The Geeky Juans will be having a Gundam Episode soon. While waiting for that, you can listen to our
previous episodes, and answer our
Gundam poll as well!
About the Author
A former teacher and guitarist, Jude (Twitter, Instagram) is currently a writer that covers video games and is one of the co-hosts of The Geeky Juans. Apart from hosting the podcast, you can also catch him streaming at Dude It’s Jude on Facebook.
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