Last 2018, just before the decaffeinated and successful ‘Detective Pikachu’ —Its $ 433 million raised speak for themselves — the folks at Legendary Pictures announced that they were preparing an adaptation in real action of ‘My Hero Academia’; the acclaimed Kōhei Horikoshi manga that made the leap to anime in 2016 with Kenji Nagasaki.
A veteran of live-action
After a long season with no news about the project, we have finally met who will be the director in charge of bringing the adventures of Izuku Midoriya to the big screen. This will be none other than the Japanese filmmaker Shinsuke Sato; very familiar with live-action based on manganimes after having tackled titles such as ‘Gantz’, ‘Death Note’ or ‘Bleach’.
In addition, Sato is also responsible for the hilarious zombie comedy ‘I Am a Hero’, who got a well deserved Audience Award in the 2015 edition of the Sitges Festival and, more recently, from the wild series in survival key ‘Alice in Borderland’; both also adaptations of sleeves.
‘My Hero Academia’ was originally published in 2014 in the famous Weekly Shōnen Jump, and follows the adventures of Izuku Idoriya; a young man obsessed with superheroes who dreams of becoming one of them in a world in which 80% of the population has some kind of superpower. Of course, poor Izuku belongs to the remaining 20%, but he still decides to enroll in the Yuekio hero academy to test his worth and fulfill his dream.
For the moment There is no release date for the live-action of ‘My Hero Academia’ —Which, by the way, will be Sato’s English-speaking debut— or data on its production or cast; but to warm up you can keep an eye on the original anime –available on Netflix– and his feature films ‘Two heroes’ Y ‘The awakening of heroes’ —Both on Amazon Prime Video. The last film in the saga, subtitled ‘World Heroes’ Mission’, just released in Japan, so it will take a little longer to get our hands on it.