Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop will not be getting a second season.
The massively hyped, deeply ambitious serial based off of the 1998 Sunrise anime series of the same name, which created a wave of fans around the world, debuted to Netflix on November 19, 2022. The 10-episode series had a rough reception with the Netflix subscriber base resulting in the show seeing a steep viewership decline. Initially starting off as a Top 10 series for the service and racking up almost 74 million viewing hours from its debut, things immediately went downhill for the series.
Viewership plummeted by 59 percent for the week of November 29 to December 5 with only 15.2 million viewing hours subsequently. From there, the writing was on the wall for the sci-fi show.
Netflix reportedly decides on a show’s renewal based on factors such as production costs and retention. The service has an industry-standard renewal rate of 60% for shows with two or more seasons according to IGN. “The biggest thing that we look at is, are we getting enough viewership to justify the cost of the series?” Cindy Holland, Netflix’s former vice president of original content, was quoted as saying in 2018. “We also look at other things: how beloved the fan community is, how social a title is. There are lots of other things that we look at that you all can also see out in the world. But we are deliberate and thoughtful, and there are a lot of things that go into the decision.”
Netflix first ordered the project direct to series back in 2018. André Nemec (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) serves as showrunner, with original anime series director Shinichiro Watanabe on board as a consultant on the series and original composer Yoko Kanno returning for the live-action adaptation.
While critics mostly praised the performances of the main cast (John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, and Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black), the 10-episode series was heavily faulted for being unoriginal and unappealing (NextShark). On Rotten Tomatoes, the show received a 46% positive rating from critics, while 55% of general audience members gave it a rating of 3.5 stars or higher.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo
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