The New Zealand Herald has reported that John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, and other stars of Netflix’s upcoming live-action Cowboy Bebop series have been spotted in Auckland. Tristan Liu even posted about it on Instagram. What makes this significant is that the series has now started production in the country, which is of course famous for being one of the most scenic filming locations on Earth.

John Cho certainly has grown some hair, which teases that he might really try and sport Spike Spiegle’s hairstyle. Meanwhile, Mustafa Shakir, who plays Jet Black, has also been spotted in Piha Beach, while Daniella Pineda, who plays Faye Valentine, was also spotted enjoying a swim in Whitianga. As for Ein… well, we already know he’s going to be a Welsh Corgi.

New Zealand-based stunt coordinator Allan Poppleton of Cunning Stunts also shared a video of the cast and crew training for some stunt scenes via Instagram as well.

Thor’s scriptwriter, Chris Yost, will be writing the scripts. As for how it will adhere to the original, the Netflix series will have creator and director Shinichiro Watanabe as creative consultant. Alex Garcia Lopez (Netflix’s Daredevil and Punisher series) will be directing the first two episodes.

Here’s how Netflix describes the new series:

Based on the worldwide phenomenon from Sunrise Inc., Cowboy Bebop is the jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Radical Ed: a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals. They’ll even save the world…for the right price.

source: The New Zealand Herald