It’s been over a decade since the Wachowskis brought Speed Racer to the big screen. Although that film failed to light up the box office in 2008, the franchise is getting a second chance at live-action. Via The Hollywood Reporter, J.J. Abrams and his production company, Bad Robot, are producing a new Speed Racer live-action series for Apple TV+
According to the report, Snowpiercer veteran Hiram Martinez has come up with an “exciting take” on Speed Racer that won over Apple, Warner Bros., and Bad Robot. Martinez will co-write the script with Ron Fitzgerald (Westworld), and both Martinez and Fitzgerald will be the showrunners.
THR’s story notes that the reboot has been in the works for a long time. It also mentions that “the development process has been excruciatingly slow.” Martinez and Fitzgerald were only hired for the show within the last few months.
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Speed Racer was originally a manga created by Tatsuo Yoshida in 1966. It was called Mach GoGoGo in Japan. The franchise didn’t really take off until 1967, when the Speed Racer anime series came to America. The show was a massive hit domestically, and it was one of the first anime to become popular in the United States. The theme song alone remains iconic to this day.
The manga and anime follow Speed, a young racer who drives a car called the Mach 5. Speed is joined on his adventures by his girlfriend, Trixie, his younger brother, Spritle, their father, Pops, and Spritle’s pet chimpanzee, Chim-Chim. One of Speed’s allies outside of the Racer family was the enigmatic Racer X, who was secretly his presumed dead brother, Rex Racer.
THR also notes that Bad Robot is under close scrutiny by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav because the multi-million dollar development deal with Abrams has produced very little to date. The long-in-development sci-fi series, Demimonde, may also be in jeopardy if Zaslav decides against going forward with it.
What do you want to see in a Speed Racer live-action series? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Speed Racer & Racer X: The Origins Collection
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