Noah Centineo Circles Lead Role in Live Action GUNDAM as New Details Tease a One Year War Story
The live action Gundam movie is finally showing signs of life again, and it looks like Noah Centineo may be stepping into the cockpit. After missing out on playing He-Man in Masters of the Universe and gearing up for his role as Ken Masters in the upcoming Street Fighter reboot, the actor is now in talks to join Sydney Sweeney in Legendary’s long developing adaptation of the iconic mecha franchise.
This project has been slowly building for nearly a decade. Earlier reports attached Drew Starkey as the male lead, but those conversations have ended. Centineo is now the one in active discussions to take over the role, adding another high profile genre project to a career. Along with Street Fighter, he’s also set to headline Lionsgate’s Rambo prequel.
Thanks to a report from Nexus Point News, we have a strong indication of what the movie will tackle. According to the site:
"Sources point to the film adapting Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, a gritty, ground-level story set during the One Year War. The original series follows a squad of Earth Federation soldiers battling Zeon forces in the jungles of Southeast Asia while exploring themes of loyalty, tragedy, and the human cost of war."
That’s a fan favorite corner of the franchise. The site added
"At its heart is a star-crossed romance between a Federation officer and a woman from Zeon, a dynamic the film will mirror, with Sweeney playing a young woman on a mission to avenge her father and Starkey potentially portraying her rival and love interest from the Earth Federation."
If the film mirrors that emotional core, we may actually get a interesting and cool story that leans into the moral gray areas that define Gundam.
Jim Mickle, known for Sweet Tooth, is writing and directing the movie. When the film was first announced in 2021, Jordan Vogt Roberts was attached, but Mickle has since taken over and will be steering the franchise into its first ever live action interpretation.
Gundam is the original mecha powerhouse, created by Yoshiyuki Tomino back in 1979. It includes 25 anime series, 34 animated films, and 27 original animated productions.
The franchise continues to generate around 1 billion dollars annually and remains one of Bandai Namco’s biggest cultural pillars.
Legendary partnered with Bandai and Namco in 2018 to co-finance the live action project. Earlier this year they reiterated their long term plans for the franchise, stating
"We plan to steadily announce details as they become finalized. Mobile Suit Gundam, which began broadcasting in 1979, established the genre of 'real robot anime' that could not be described in terms of simple good and evil, which had been the trend of robot anime up to that point, with realistic depictions of war, detailed scientific examinations, and intricately interwoven human dramas that treated robots as 'weapons' called 'mobile suits,' and caused a huge boom."
Filming is expected to begin in Australia next spring.