John Cho to star in Netflix live-action Cowboy Bebop series

The star of Star Trek and Searching will play Spike alongside Mustafa Shakir, Daniella Pineda and Alex Hassell.

Gael Cooper

CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.

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Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.

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Gael Cooper

April 4, 2019 11:32 a.m. PT

Actor John Cho, of Harold and Kumar, Searching and Star Trek fame, will star as Spike Spiegel in Netflix's live-action remake of Cowboy Bebop, the network announced Thursday.

SPIKE...
Haunted by visions of the woman he loved and lost, Julia, Spike’s criminal past slowly catches up to him — putting him and the Bebop crew in the crosshairs of the solar system’s most lethal criminal organization, the Syndicate. pic.twitter.com/NurBCkDyPO
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) April 4, 2019

Cowboy Bebop is an acclaimed 1998 Japanese anime TV series named for the Bebop, a spaceship in the year 2071, crewed by bounty hunters traveling through space. The 10-episode series was announced in late 2018.

Cho wasn't the only casting news revealed Thursday. Mustafa Shakir, who played Bushmaster in Marvel's Luke Cage, will play Spike's pal and fellow bounty hunter Jet Black.

JET…
Jet holds tight to his honor and optimism, acting as a father figure to his misfit crew, always seeing the best in his partner, Spike… until it’s too late. pic.twitter.com/X2fePKoM7E
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) April 4, 2019

Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) has been cast as Faye Valentine, another bounty hunter. She has amnesia and is searching for her own identity.

FAYE…
She’s always on the search for the person with the key to her identity. In the meantime, she’ll fake it till she makes it. pic.twitter.com/UJDP1ZDQeA
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) April 4, 2019

And Alex Hassell plays Vicious, a hitman and Spike's former friend now turned enemy.

VICIOUS…
Once he was Spike’s best friend, now he’s his mortal enemy and is obsessed with taking him down. pic.twitter.com/PWXmn023JD
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) April 4, 2019

There's no official release date for the movie yet.

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