Netflix’s Live-Action Gundam Movie Starring Sydney Sweeney Reveals First Story Details

Netflix’s live-action Gundam film has been in development in some form since 2018. A director and cast are set, and the cast includes big names like Sydney Sweeney. Still, hard details about what the adaptation of the legendary mech anime will look like have been almost non-existent.

Now one of the film’s stars is pulling back the curtain a little.

Noah Centineo, who stars in Gundam and Street Fighter, appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast this summer. He called the movie a “big action romance space movie.” He also described Gundam as “a non-Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet in space.”

The phrase is a bit confusing. My reading is that Centineo means the film follows star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of a generational conflict. That would fit comfortably within established Mobile Suit Gundam lore, since the series often focuses on the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon in the Universal Century timeline.

An early official synopsis of the film reads:

As shifting allegiances and a growing threat set them on a collision course for one another, they’re pulled into a high-stakes race across the stars that could define the fate of humanity. With awe-inspiring battles, intimate human emotion, and an epic cinematic scale, this is Gundam like it’s been seen before.

Centineo also confirmed to podcast host Horowitz that the film takes place in the Universal Century. That timeline hosts many of the franchise’s most iconic shows and movies, including the original series that started it all.

No one has said exactly where in the timeline the film falls. Concept art released in 2021 showed the RX-78-2 Gundam suit from the original series. That art appeared while Jordan Vogt-Roberts was attached as director, though. Jim Mickle later replaced him.

The cast

Centineo and Sweeney won’t be the only familiar faces. They will be joined by Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery) and Michael Mando (Spider-Man: Brand New Day). The cast also includes:

• Jackson White (Tell Me Lies)
• Shioli Kutsuna (Deadpool & Wolverine)
• Nonso Anozie (Sweet Tooth)
• Javon “Wanna” Walton (Under the Bridge)
• Oleksandr Rudynskyi (The Agency)
• Ida Brooke (Dune: Part Three)
• Gemma Chua-Tran (Heartbreak High)

Release and other Gundam projects

Netflix has not set a release date, but filming wrapped in July. Gundam fans have plenty to look forward to. A new animated series, Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO, is set for release in 2027. A game set in the same universe as that show, Gundam Rogue Orbit, is also due next year.

Related: Gundam’s getting a sick action game where you hunt giant robots. Bandai Namco calls the title a cinematic take on the storied mech franchise.

Source: Polygon