Get ready for a new adventure with Kazuma Kiryu, this time in a live-action TV show.
We first heard back in June that Amazon was planning to adapt the video game franchise Like a Dragon (née Yakuza) into a live-action Japanese series. We knew it would be a six-episode series that would be released in two three-episode batches — the first batch on October 24 and the rest on November 1 — and that it would star Kiryu (played by Ryoma Takeuchi of Kamen Rider Ride) and his friends in what appears to be an adaptation of the first game, Yakuza. Bee San Diego Comic-Conwe learned a little more – especially that House of Ninjas‘ Kento Kaku stars as organized crime boss Nishiki, Kiryu’s complicated former childhood friend.
The gangster soap opera Like a Dragon has become a huge success in both Japan and abroad, with nine mainline games in the series, numerous spin-offs, and many existing adaptations in other media. (Perhaps most significantly for this project, Takashi Miike directed Like a dragon: the movie(also based on the first game in the series.) The latest entry, Like a dragon: infinite wealthis an absolute delight and one of our favorite games of the year.
The Like a dragon The series follows Prime Video’s highly successful film adaptation of the Fallout video game series and the entertainment industry’s growing interest in film adaptations of major video games.
The series is directed by Masaharu Take, the story is written by Sean Crouch and Yugo Nakamura, and the Japanese screenplay is written by Yoshida Yasuhiro and Yamada Kana.
The biggest question that remains: Will the show feature the series’ famous minigames (and their delightfully silly tone)? I’m eagerly awaiting the chance to see Dondoko Island in live action, or someone attempting to become a Sujimon master. Given that the series appears to be adapting the first game for a movie, the chances seem slim, but one can dream.
Here you’ll find all of Polygon’s SDCC 2024 coverage, including news, trailers, and more.