A new report is teasing that if the new Naruto live-action movie ends up being a success, there could be way more movies planned than any fan could have ever expected. Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and with it has made a return with all kinds of new projects. Not only are fans going to be treated to a full revival of the classic anime series, but there’s also a live-action feature film adaptation that’s set to go into full production in the near future.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Naruto has kicked off a global casting search for its new live-action feature film debut, and new details about the project have been steadily making their way online through multiple reports. It’s yet to be revealed if any of these reports will pan out, but one of the most curious comes from notable leaker Daniel RPK as the report notes that there could end up being “7-8 films overall” by the time the live-action Naruto franchise wraps up if everything goes well.
Naruto Could Get 8 Live-Action Movies Like Harry Potter
As fans know too well (and have criticized the anime about for decades), Naruto is a very long series. It comes from the earlier eras of Shueisha’s Shonen Jump magazine where creators were encouraged to keep their stories going for a long time, and Naruto spans multiple eras, arcs, and even has two major halves to its story following a time skip. Adapting such a massive story would be an ordeal, which is why the report notes that the plan for the franchise is to follow the Harry Potter model and working it out over seven or eight films.
“Part 1” of the original series would be a trilogy of films, and then the events of Naruto: Shippuden would then wrap up the second half with three or four films. The early story reports for this debut film teases an adaptation of the Land of Waves arc, which would be a suitable start to the entire film franchise. But if there’s a success, then it does raise a lot of questions about not only how long it would take to adapt the story but whether or not something of that nature is even possible.
Will Naruto’s Live-Action Movie Even Work?
This report does feel a bit like it’s putting the cart before the horse for now as the first film hasn’t even started production. This eight film projection is clearly just an early plan for the best possible outcome, but that’s not exactly feasible within the current Hollywood feature film market. Director Destin Daniel Cretton is taking on the film, but is in such high demand that he’s likely going to return to the Spider-Man franchise (or some other notable project) after Naruto wraps up its production. It’d make an even longer wait for a sequel, let along eight different films.
That’s also not factoring in any potential changes to Naruto‘s original story. Reports of potential character alterations are already making fans upset, and this is all before any big changes to its story are made. There could be eight different films, but it would be even more realistic to shoot for a trilogy that has a complete story and ending. This live-action version is going to be different than fans will expect, so don’t really hold out hope for a long film franchise either. It’s going to be altered to make it more streamlined for this new version of the story.
How many live-action Naruto films would you want to see? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!
HT – Daniel RPK
More Anime
-
Courtesy of TMS Entertainment / Crunchyroll -
Courtesy of TOHO Animation -
©BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION -
Courtesy of Shueisha -
Courtesy of Passione / Crunchyroll -
Image Courtesy of C2C / HIDIVE -
Image Courtesy of TMS Entertainment / Netflix
