Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop adaptation was canceled after just one season, likely due to mixed reviews from both critics and fans. Insiders even said the decision was made by “balancing the show’s viewership and cost.” And according to actor John Cho, it was disappointing news, but he enjoyed his time on the series.
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Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on the cancellation, Cho — who played Spike Spiegel in the series — acknowledged that the cancellation of the series hurt due to how much time he spent preparing and filming the series. A big move and an injury only seemed to sting more after its unceremonious axing less than a month after its debut.
“I put a lot of my life into it. I’d gotten injured shooting that show and so I took a year off because of the surgery and devoted myself to rehab, came back and finished the show,” said Cho. “It was this huge mountain for me to climb, healing from that injury. I felt good about myself as a result. We also shot the show in New Zealand, so my family moved there. It was just a huge event in my life and it was suddenly over. It was very shocking and I was bummed.”
However, it was not all doom and gloom, as he also looked at the positives that came from the people who did enjoy it.
“But I was very warmed by the response,” he continued. “I wish I could have contacted everybody and gotten hugs. You can’t do that now, but… I don’t know what this is. I’m mystified a little bit about how you can connect with people that you don’t know doing your work, but I won’t question it. I will value it and treasure it. I’m just really deeply appreciative that anyone would care. It’s stunning to me.”
The official synopsis calls it an “action-packed space Western about three bounty hunters, aka ‘cowboys,’ all trying to outrun the past.” Protagonists Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, and Faye Valentine all come together to form a “scrappy, snarky crew ready to hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals — for the right price. But they can only kick and quip their way out of so many scuffles before their pasts finally catch up with them.”
Cowboy Bebop was a co-production between Netflix and Tomorrow Studios, with Michael Katleman and Alex Garcia Lopez having directed all 10 episodes. The live-action series also included original anime composer Yoko Kanno, who returned to create the soundtrack.
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The original anime had just 26 episodes and one special in the late 1990s before the release of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, which came out in 2001.
