GUNDAM’s Live-Action Movie Has a Big Connection to the Original Anime

The live-action Mobile Suit Gundam movie just got a major update, and longtime fans may have another reason to get excited about Hollywood’s take on the legendary anime franchise.

After years of questions about what kind of Gundam movie we’re actually getting, Noah Centineo has revealed one incredibly important detail, and that is that the film takes place within the Universal Century canon.

In other words, the story is stepping directly into the timeline that started the whole thing. Centineo shared the news during an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast. He also offered a pretty interesting description of the movie and its story:

“It’s a big action romance space movie. It lives in the Universal Century canon of Gundam, for those who know. I don’t know how much I can tell you about what characters are in it, but I will say you can compare it to a non-Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet in Space.”

The Universal Century confirmation is easily the biggest piece of information for Gundam fans. The Universal Century is the timeline introduced in the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime, which launched the franchise and established the conflict between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon.

It’s also where fans first met Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, two characters who became inseparable from the identity of Gundam.

The original story saw Amuro stumble into piloting the RX-78-2 Gundam as he was pulled into the devastating war between Earth and Zeon. The series wrapped up its initial run in 1980, but that conflict and its aftermath have fueled Gundam stories for decades.

Rather than creating another completely separate timeline, the filmmakers have an enormous amount of established history to work with. Of course, Centineo isn’t saying exactly when the story happens or which familiar characters could be involved.

His description of the film as an action-romance set in space also suggests we may be following new characters caught on opposite sides of the larger Earth Federation and Zeon conflict.

The Romeo and Juliet comparison certainly points in that direction, although we’ll have to wait for more details before we know exactly how that relationship fits into the Universal Century.

The franchise has continued expanding that timeline with projects such as Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway, which follows Hathaway Noa and deals with a world still living with the consequences of everything that came before.

The second installment in the trilogy, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe, arrived earlier this year, and a third movie is planned.

At the same time, Gundam has continued having fun with alternate realities. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX explored a dramatically different version of history in which Zeon won the original war.

One of the biggest changes involved Char discovering and taking the Gundam instead of Amuro, sending events down a completely different path.

The live-action movie appears to be taking another route by planting itself inside the established Universal Century continuity. That also raises a big question surrounding Centineo and Sydney Sweeney, who is also attached to star.

There has been speculation that the pair could be playing live-action versions of Amuro and Char, but Centineo’s comments make that possibility seem less likely. A romance described as Romeo and Juliet in space could point toward completely original characters whose relationship unfolds against the familiar Universal Century war.

Trying to recreate Amuro and Char’s entire story in a live-action movie would come with a mountain of expectations. Introducing new characters within the Universal Century could give the filmmakers room to tell their own story while still using the factions, history, technology, mobile suits, and political conflict that made the original Gundam so memorable.

There’s still plenty we don’t know, including which Gundams will appear, exactly where the movie lands on the Universal Century timeline, and whether characters from the anime will make appearances.

Now we just need to see the mobile suits. If you’re making a live-action Gundam movie, those giant robots better look awesome.