Netflix's live-action Cowboy Bebop series will not return for a second season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has canceled Cowboy Bebop less than three weeks after the much-hyped adaptation dropped its 10-episode first season. THR notes the show's disappointing reception among fans and critics. At the time of writing, Netflix's Cowboy Bebop holds a 46 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Its audience score is only slightly better at 54 percent.
"Maybe next time, Space Cowboy -- this live-action Bebop has a fun enough crew to spend time with, but it disappointingly replaces the soulfulness of the source material with kitsch," the critics consensus for Cowboy Bebop Season 1 on Rotten Tomatoes reads.
According to Netflix's Top 10 website, Cowboy Bebop Season 1 has accumulated nearly 74 million viewing hours since its premiere on Nov. 19. However, THR also notes that for the week of Nov. 29-Dec. 5, the show's viewership dropped a staggering 59 percent. As such, it seems as though Netflix simply decided that Cowboy Bebop's viewership numbers were not strong enough to justify the show's cost.
Netflix's Cowboy Bebop Season 1 stars John Cho (Star Trek) as Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir (Marvel's Luke Cage) as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda (The Originals) as Faye Valentine, Elena Satine (Magic City) as Julia and Alex Hassell (The Boys) as Vicious. The show is based upon the original Cowboy Bebop, a neo-noir space western anime series created by the Japanese animation studio Sunrise.
The original Cowboy Bebop anime initially aired on TV Tokyo from April 3, 1998 to June 26, 1998. The TV Tokyo airing omitted many episodes, though included an extra special. The 26-episode series was then shown in its entirety on Wowow from Oct. 24, 1998 to April 24, 1999.
Cowboy Bebop later made its way to the United States via Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, with its first English run airing from Sept. 3, 2001 to Nov. 26, 2001. However, three episodes were initially skipped due to concerns regarding their depiction of violence in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. These episodes ultimately aired on Adult Swim from Dec. 17, 2001 to Feb. 15, 2002.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, a feature film set between Episodes 22 and 23, premiered in Japanese theaters on Sept. 1, 2001 before arriving in the States on Aug. 11, 2002. On the whole, Cowboy Bebop's massive success in both Japan and the U.S. have resulted in it being considered one of the greatest anime series of all time.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter