John Cho Injured on Set of COWBOY BEBOP; Production Shuts Down For 7 to 9 Months
John Cho was seriously injured while shooting Netflix’s live-action series adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. According to Deadline, the injury was described as a “freak accident on the last take of a routine and well-rehearsed scene.”
His accident is serious enough to require surgery and he will also have to go through extensive rehabilitation. Because of this, production on the series is expected to shut down for the next 7 to 9 months. The new filming schedule will be set once Cho’s prognosis is clear.
The series is still early in production and Netflix could replace Cho if they wanted to, but they are not going to do that. They’re fully committed to Cho and will not make this series without him. A rep from Netflix offered the following statement:
“Our thoughts are with John and he has our complete support as he recuperates from this injury.”
Cowboy Bebop is the “jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Radical Ed: a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals. They’ll even save the world…for the right price.”
The cast for the series includes Cho as Spike Spiegel and Elena Satine as Julia, along with Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage) as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) as Faye Valentin, and Alex Hassell (Suburbicon) as Vicious.
The first season of the Cowboy Bebop series will consist of ten episodes. Christopher Yost is involved as a writer and executive producer. He previously worked on Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: The Dark World, Star Wars Rebels, Hulk Vs, X-Men: Evolution, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and more.