Bright: Samurai Soul is taking us back to the franchise that introduced a world wherein humans, orcs, elves, and numerous other magical creatures lived side by side in a world that wasn’t too different from our own, with the first live-action film starring Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, and Noomi Rapace releasing in 2017. With the upcoming anime film re-imagining the original story taking place in a setting similar to feudal Japan, we here at Comicbook.com had the opportunity to chat with director Kyohei Ishiguro about the movie which will be arriving on Netflix on October 12th.
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Though the movie has yet to hit the streaming service, Director Ishiguro is already beginning to think about ideas for a sequel film, which would take place in a new era of Japan and, potentially, focus on the Civil War period within Japan’s history while focusing on ninjas rather than samurai:
“If there’s an opportunity for a sequel, I would totally be in but that decision is totally up to Netflix. As I’ve said before, this spin-off version is set in Japan with our endeavor to explore the older days of this version and I think that we can go back even further. I’d like to further explore the Civil War period of Japanese lore, where they were feudal lords and clans using ninjas as their personnel. I think this current version proved that it was possible to explore the past of Japan so I’d love to explore a Civil War version with ninjas, with the main character being a ninja, like Ninja Soul and I’d definitely love to do it.”
Ishiguro is no rookie to the medium of anime, having been the director for series such as Psycho-Pass and Your Lie In April to name a few, though it’s clear that the upcoming return to the world of Bright is unlike anything that he’s done before. While a sequel to the original live-action film has yet to be confirmed, the existence of Bright: Samurai Soul proves that the streaming service is interested in returning to the world that kicked off with Will Smith in the driver’s seat.
Do you want to see the world of Bright expanded in the medium of anime? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the magical world of Bright.
