The Gundam series has been around for a long time, breathing life into the mecha genre with different installments over the past 30-or-so years. In recent times, the popular franchise has enjoyed sneaky cameos in recent films, such as Ready Player One, and let’s face it, is the premise of Pacific Rim: Uprising.
That, coupled with plenty of experience on the screen, puts it at the forefront of getting a live-action adaptation. Despite the long-standing legacy and several big-screen animated titles, however, its Mobile Suit Gundam branch has never quite expanded into that field, with the closest project being an eight-minute live-action short titled Gundam Behind the Front by a Japanese media studio.
A stage play adaptation of "Mobile Suit Gundam 00" has been announced for February 2019 https://t.co/ah5EbMXV29 pic.twitter.com/Wx86wPfOoE
— moetron | pKjd (@pKjd) April 14, 2018
Now, it seems Mobile Suit Gundam is one step closer to a live-action future. Instead of having the usual big-screen debut, the series will hit the stage with a stage play adaptation, in light of its recent 10-year-anniversary celebration. Not much information has been released, so fans are understandably treating this news with equal parts hope and scepticism.
With this, the doors to future ventures will be opened – for better or worse. There have always been lingering concerns about live-action adaptations in the community, no matter the form, but the stage play can at least introduce a new storytelling medium for the franchise.
Here’s a brief refresher of what goes down in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, before it hits the theatrical scene in 2019:
The year is 2307 A.D. While the Earth’s reserves of fossil fuels have been depleted, humanity has obtained a new nearly infinite source of energy to replace them, in the form of large-scale solar powered generation systems based on three huge orbital elevators. However, the benefits of this system are available only to a handful of major powers and their allies. These orbital elevators belong to three superpower blocs: the Union, a coalition of free nations led by the United States of America; the Human Reform League, a socialist group led by China, Russia and India; and the AEU, a parliamentary organization led by the nations of continental Europe.
These confederations continue to play a grand zero-sum game for the sake of their own prestige and prosperity. Thus, even in the 24th Century, humanity has yet to unite as one. In this world of unceasing conflict, a private armed organization steps forward, declaring their intention to the eliminate war through martial force. Using the power of their mobile suits combatively, a series of four high-performance machines each dubbed “Gundam”, the paramilitary organization known as Celestial Being takes the world-stage beginning armed interventions within all the world’s nations.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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