'Yakusoku no Neverland' Western Live-Action Series in Development

by Vindstot
Jun 10, 2020 9:31 PM | 47 Comments

Amazon is developing a live-action series based on Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu's Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland) manga, according to entertainment news website The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.

Rodney Rothman and Meghan Malloy, known for their works in Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, are directing and penning the show, respectively. Rotham and Malloy are also serving as executive producers alongside Masi Oka (Death Note), and Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee (The Grudge) and Miri Yoon (Polaroid). Fox21 Television Studios and Amazon Studio are producing the series, which will be released on Amazon's Prime Video platform.

Synopsis
At Grace Field House, life couldn't be better for the orphans! Though they have no parents, together with the other kids and a kind "Mama" who cares for them, they form one big, happy family. No child is ever overlooked, especially since they are all adopted by the age of 12. Their daily lives involve rigorous tests, but afterwards, they are allowed to play outside.

There is only one rule they must obey: do not leave the orphanage. But one day, two top-scoring orphans, Emma and Norman, venture past the gate and unearth the harrowing secret behind their entire existence. Utilizing their quick-wittedness, the children must work together to somehow change their predetermined fate. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shirai and Posuka began serializing the fantasy thriller manga in Weekly Shounen Jump in August 2016. Shueisha released the 18th volume on March 4, with the 19th volume scheduled for release on July 3 (pictured). Yakusoku no Neverland has a cumulative 21 million copies of its volumes in circulation worldwide.

VIZ Media distributed the first three chapters of the manga in English alongside the Japanese release as a part of its Jump Start initiative and subsequently serialized it in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. The company now publishes the series simultaneously on its new Shounen Jump platform. The 15th volume went on sale on June 2.

A 12-episode television anime adaptation produced by CloverWorks aired in Winter 2019. A second season was originally slated for Fall 2020, but has since been delayed to Winter 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19.

Shueisha announced a Japanese live-action film adaptation in September 2019, which will open in theaters on December 18.

Source: Comic Natalie, The Hollywood Reporter

News submitted by Aiimee

Live Action

20 of 47 Comments Recent Comments

Im afraid of this already. Better keep my expectations low :S

Jun 14, 2020 10:59 AM by Kodashi

"Amazon is developing a live-action series based on Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu's Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland) manga, according to entertainment news website The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday."

::closes tab::

Jun 13, 2020 12:42 PM by VyseLegendaire

Obligatory there's no such thing as good live action comment.

Jun 13, 2020 8:33 AM by Detective1412

I just know this will be complete shit and even more so when I read this:

"Rotham and Malloy are also serving as executive producers alongside Masi Oka (Death Note)"

The Death Note live action is an abomination. So I already see this live action already at a level close to trash before it even aired.

Live actions always turn to shit. Never get your hopes up with these things. Have the lowest of the low expectations.

Jun 12, 2020 11:52 PM by Liaeves

Tbf this series seems will not be that hard to make as live action, i agree if they give Stranger Things treatment it could be great, but even if in a lower budget it'll be fine, but we'll see...

Jun 12, 2020 6:33 AM by roppuri

Why, god? WHY?! It's gonna be terrible, or these really are the ends times.

Jun 12, 2020 6:24 AM by ag03818

Wildcat17 said:
Am I the only one who's actually excited about these news? This is probably one of the most suited manga series ever to be turned into a western live-action.
I just hope that the characters are actually children, portrayed by good child-actors. I expect a vibe like Strange Things.

If they give it a Stranger things treatment, it could be great (despite some awful cgi demons) but I still wouldn´t set my expectations that high.

Jun 11, 2020 9:09 PM by MichaelJackson

Am I the only one who's actually excited about these news? This is probably one of the most suited manga series ever to be turned into a western live-action.
I just hope that the characters are actually children, portrayed by good child-actors. I expect a vibe like Strange Things.

Jun 11, 2020 8:33 PM by Wildcat17

I wonder how they'll mess this one up...

kronopy said:
Let me guess... They will complain that all the actors need to be Asians, then they make the female lead in a sexually ambiguous black girl, and make one of the guys Asian and one Mexican, and at least one of them is gay or queer. Instead of females the orphanage will be administered by a Caucasian man, and all the demons will actually white men with horns... A decade ago I really wanted anime adaptations done by Hollywood, but now I just wish they would forget that Japan even exist... at least until Western peoples grow some ball and send the woke movement to trash.

OMG don't give them ideas!

Jun 11, 2020 8:01 PM by BatoKusanagi

You should probably calm down dude. You're making like 20 assumptions based on your own preconceived notions. It's kinda why the MAL forums are trash, so many angry dudes complaining about SJW's, of which they've only seen on youtube and not real life.

It'll probably be shit but not because of "PC culture", it'll be because they give it the Hollywood treatment with shitty one liners and hollow character rewrites like DBZ or GitS. It's more likely they make it a copy of maze runner or hunger games than it is they cast diverse characters to be "PC".

Jun 11, 2020 7:40 PM by Ketuekigami

You know, as skeptical as I am, I think this is the one live-action adaptation that could work in all honesty. The fact that some of the writers and the director from Into The Spiderverse is part of this project honestly give me a glimmer of hope already, as Spiderverse is an amazing film! Doing a bit more research, Fox 21 doesn't have much recognizable shows (at least to me that were enjoyed by a lot of people), however, Vertigo entertainment has actually worked in co-production with many not only good films, but high grossing ones such as It and it's successor, every theatrical Lego Movie, The Ring and it's sequels (and the god awful 2019 threequel sadly), Doctor Sleep, The Disaster Artist, and a ton more movies. While there isn't any television credits in Vertigo's catalog, they're experience shows a lot of promise. Of course, there are others factors that could determine the quality, one example being who they cast, etc. Overall I'm still skeptical, but I'm looking at this one with open arms. (Just don't cast adults to play the kids. That's all I'm asking for.)

Jun 11, 2020 3:51 PM by twilyopal

All I have to say is that The west will not like the Portrayal of sister krone. For obvious reasons

Jun 11, 2020 3:36 PM by Old_School_Akira

Why...? I mean, there is already going to be Japane live action, why would you make another one? Even before the first live action aired...?

Jun 11, 2020 2:49 PM by JanPri

I like The Promised Neverland a lot, but this is a hard pass for me. Absolutely not.

I wish Hollywood and their ilk would stay away from anime/manga. Especially with their recent tendencies to screw up and twist the many well loved series/franchises they get their hands on.

Jun 11, 2020 2:17 PM by raynaninja

This sounds like a complete trainwreck waiting to happen to the point that I'm actually kind of excited to see it lol

The main cast is either going to be child actors or 20 year olds cast as 12 year olds, and I can't tell which would be worse

Jun 11, 2020 12:24 PM by snniiiiiffffff

Can Hollywood just come up with new, original stories and leave the manga/anime stuff alone please....

Jun 11, 2020 11:09 AM by thebrentinator24

Amazon has some great originals in their catalogue, so I'm optimistic when it comes to this Hollywood adaptation. If they make it a miniseries to begin with, it might be a great 8 ep ride when they leave the orpahage. You don't even need a big budgets. Cast the kids as unknowns and put in some great character actors in the adult roles. They prob need to change up some stuff. Manga to live-action need some reworks. This happens all the time. Just look at Marvel. This and Bebop might be OK. Why do we need to be so salty. Producers do track interest, so why not hype up projects we want to happen.

Jun 11, 2020 10:53 AM by MindOfOsaka

But this kind of trash is also nice. Nice that they pay the creators but everyone will hate their pc bs. People who want to watch garbage will watch garbage, and it's profitable to make it. If you want quality you have to stick to the original.

Jun 11, 2020 10:46 AM by Hannatach

SPIDER-VERSE DIRECTOR LES GOOOO

Jun 11, 2020 10:20 AM by RoryBurrows

As much as I dislike live-action adaptations of any kind, I can understand why Amazon decided to go with this series. The premise feels similar to those dark fantasy stories saturating the western young adult genre.

Don't have much hope for it turning out good, though. Only silver lining I can think of is that Amazon had the incentive to pick up the golden gem that is Vinland Saga.

Jun 11, 2020 8:41 AM by Skittles

See All Comments