Netflix Announces New ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Project

Netflix continues its big push into anime with the announcement of a new movie that’s sure to make fans excited. The streaming giant took to Twitter earlier this evening to announce they’ve ordered Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, an anime movie scheduled to hit the streaming service in 2020.

Produced in part by Production I.G. and SOLA Digital Arts, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) and Shinji Araki (Appleseed).

Ghost in the Shell originally started as a Japanese manga before finding its way into other mediums such as an animated feature film and television series. Most recently, the property was adapted into a live-action film starring Scarlett Johansson as the film’s lead Major Motoko Kusanag. Johansson’s casting was plenty controversial and the film didn’t lead up to hype, only grossing $169.8 million at the box office.

According to Mamoru Oshii, one of the property’s original directors, the Johansson casting wasn’t as controversial as some made it out to be.

“Yes,” Oshii answered when asked if he agreed with the casting. “I first heard about doing a live-action version almost ten years ago. It’s been a long road since then, but to be honest, it seemed like someone would do it eventually, and I admit I was concerned about who would play Motoko.”

“I was a little surprised, too, by the way Hollywood does filming — how they’ll do the same scene take after take,” he said. “They were doing a shot of someone walking into a store, and I thought they were going to be at it all night. I have no idea what was wrong that they wanted to repeat it so many times.”

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 is currently scheduled for release in 2020 exclusively on Netflix.