Time to dust off the Mach Five and grab your pet monkey. Apple TV+ is putting together a live-action Speed Racer series, and it’s doing it in a big way. The show will come from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television, already showing the series will have clout. Deadline reports that Hiram Martinez (Snowpiercer) and Ron Fitzgerald (Westworld) have been tapped to write the show, hinting that we might be going a bit more serious with the take.
There are few details on the project as it is both pretty secret and in the very early stages. However, the Apple TV+ Speed Racer series is said to be returning to the franchise’s roots and taking inspiration from the original 1960s manga. Just what that really means isn’t clear, but it could mean that we don’t see some characters who were made up specifically for the anime and that characters’ stories change around a bit.
Speed Racer hasn’t seen all that much mainstream success in the West since it burst onto the scene in the ’60s as anime. The franchise has had comics and a few animated reboots but nothing that’s turned the franchise into a juggernaut. Of course, the highest-profile attempt to do so was the Wachowski siblings’ insanely underappreciated, ahead-of-its-time live-action film that came out in 2008. That movie disappointed at the box office after critics unjustly skewered it. Sadly, this new series will have no connection to the film, but this is your reminder that you can now watch it in glorious 4K from the comfort of your own home and you should.
