The hotly anticipated live-action Gundam feature film has a distributor and a streaming home. Per Deadline, insider sources have reported that Netflix is set to serve as the live-action Gundam film’s leading distributor, which presumably means Gundam has its sights set on Netflix as its ultimate streaming home. Neither the streaming giant nor Legendary Pictures offered any comment on the matter.
First announced back in 2021, the live-action Gundam film from Legendary Pictures is set to be written and directed by Jim Mickle, best known for We Are What We Are (a remake of Jorge Michel Grau’s Somos lo que hay) and Netflix’s streaming adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth. Originally, Jordan Vogt-Roberts was signed on to helm the project before being replaced by Mickle.
Back in November, Sweeney was asked about whether the live-action Gundam film was seeing any movement in development, to which she replied, “There is every single day.” Just days later, it was confirmed that upcoming Street Fighter star Noah Centineo had joined the cast of Gundam alongside Sweeney, Outer Banks star Drew Starkey, and singer-songwriter Benson Boone.
The live-action Gundam film will be the first of its kind for the franchise, which began in 1979 with the release of creator and director Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Mobile Suit Gundam anime. The series largely defined the modern mecha genre, as well as epic military space operas across a wide range of media, and is still considered one of the most influential pieces of pop culture.
The Legacy and Continued Success of the Gundam Franchise — Explained
Since the release of 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam, the wider Gundam franchise has become a defining fixture across not just the anime and science fiction, but pop culture as a whole. Apart from helping give rise to the plastic model-building kit industry as it exists today with a myriad of Gunpla models, the Gundam franchise has come to encompass dozens of anime series and film releases across multiple iterations of the series’ universe and branching timelines.
The latest entry in the franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, kicked off with the release of the Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: Beginning feature film in January 2025, which introduced audiences to a wildly different version of the beloved Universal Century calendar iteration of the series. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: Beginning was widely lauded by critics and audiences alike, with the film currently boasting a 90% audience-generated “Popcornmeter” approval rating via review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Following the release of the animated feature film, the full 12-episode Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX anime series from Studio Khara and Sunrise was released in April, quickly cementing its place as the latest fan-favorite entry in one of the most indelible anime epics of all time. In early January, it was confirmed that Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX was the top trending anime of 2025, both among new releases and across the medium as a whole.
The live-action Gundam feature film from Legendary Pictures does not currently have a planned release date.
