Netflix’s Gundam movie kicks off with Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo
It’s been years in the making, and now cameras are rolling
The live-action Gundam film is officially underway. Netflix has confirmed production has kicked off in Queensland, Australia, with Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) and Noah Centineo (fresh off the back of Street Fighter) leading a pretty sizeable cast.
The film is being directed by Jim Mickle and promises a brand-new story set in the middle of a long-running space war. Which, if you know anything about Gundam, is very much the point.
If you don’t, here’s the quick version. Gundam started back in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam, and it basically helped define the “mecha” genre. That’s giant robots, but with a twist. Instead of being purely fantastical, Gundam leans heavily into war, politics and the human cost of conflict.
Massive robots are smashing into each other, of course, but there’s also a lot of morally grey characters, shifting allegiances and stories about people stuck on opposite sides of a war they didn’t necessarily choose.
The film seems to be sticking with that formula. It follows rival mech pilots fighting for Earth and its former space colonies, who end up on a collision course as a bigger threat emerges. Expect large-scale battles mixed with something a bit more character-driven.
Alongside Sweeney and Centineo, the cast includes: Jackson White, Shioli Kutsuna, Nonso Anozie, Michael Mando, Javon Walton, Jason Isaacs and more. It’s a proper ensemble, even if character details are still being kept under wraps.
Behind the scenes, the project has been quietly in the works for a while. A live-action Gundam film was first announced back in 2018, and it’s taken a few years to get to this point. Now that filming is actually happening, things are finally moving.
It’s also being produced by Legendary Pictures in partnership with Bandai Namco Filmworks, which is about as official as it gets when it comes to adapting the source material.
There’s no release date just yet, which suggests this one is still a way off. But given the scale of the franchise and how long fans have been waiting to see it tackled in live-action, expectations are going to be pretty high.
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