Adult Swim lands new show from ‘Cowboy Bebop’ and ‘John Wick’ creators

Adult Swim’s teaming up with Shinichirō Watanabe, director and creator of the original Cowboy Bebop, for a new jazz-tinged sci-fi anime series, as reported by Variety.Lazarus is being animated by MAPPA, the studio behind Chainsaw Man, Zombie Land Saga, latter seasons of Attack of Titan and so many more. Watanabe won’t be alone, as he’s teaming up with Chad Stahelski, the mastermind behind John Wick, to co-create action sequences.

This is a Watanabe joint, so expect plenty of jazzy visuals and audio cues. To that end, Lazarus features music from jazz and electronic musicians such as Kamasi Washington, Floating Points and Bonobo, among others.

So what’s it about? Lazarus is set in the near future and follows a ragtag team chasing down a mad scientist to prevent a mass-poisoning event. There’s no release date yet, but the creators are dropping more information, including a first-look trailer, at the annual Adult Swim Festival this weekend. It’s worth noting that many of the events planned for this festival have been canceled, due to the ongoing writers and actors strikes.

As for that other Cowboy Bebop on Netflix, Watanabe told Forbes that the live-action version is “not Cowboy Bebop.” It doesn’t matter anyways, as Netflix threw down the cancel hammer for that show in late 2021.