Cowboy Bebop's John Cho And More React To Netflix's Sudden Cancellation News

There was an immense amount of hype surrounding Netflix’s live-action reboot of the Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop. While some fans were skeptical, and not everybody loved the show, there were many who ended up enjoying the new series and were looking forward to an additional season. Unfortunately, Netflix has decided not to move forward with the show, and many of the cast and crew including John Cho are now reacting to the news.

Whether or not the people who made the live-action Cowboy Bebop even knew the decision had been made before the news broke, once it did, there were a lot of people who wanted to know how the stars of the show felt. John Cho just posted a GIF, and while he doesn’t even reference the show directly, it’s clear what it is he’s referring to. 

Cowboy Bebop was one of the top streaming items on Netflix when it launched, but it’s always difficult to tell exactly what that even means. Netflix seems more than willing to cancel shows that, at least from the outside seem popular. Perhaps there were a lot of people who watched a few episodes but did not finish the series, leading the streaming service to believe that a second season wouldn’t have the necessary interest.

It’s also possible that the season’s final scene, which introduced the live-action version of character Radical Ed, actually scared the people who saw it to the point that they were afraid of Season 2.

John Cho’s co-star Mustafa Shakir, who played Jet Black to Cho’s Spike Spiegel, also made a simple post to reference the show’s cancellation. His was also little more than a single GIF, but he at least directly referenced the show.  

The two stars seem to be taking a pragmatic view of the situation. If they’re upset or angry about the cancellation, they’re keeping their cards close to their chest. Mason Park, who played Gren in the series, was a bit more open about their feelings, admitting to being “gutted” by the decision not to move forward. 

For the stars the frustration of no Season 2 is that they’ll now need to go find new work to do. For the fans the frustration is that the story will now be left on a forever cliffhanger. The first season of the show only covered about half of the original anime’s story, and it also ended with a major twist, changing one element of that story in a big way. Now we’ll never know what was going to happen, which is what frustrates executive producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach 

So now we can add Cowboy Bebop to the list of shows cancelled by Netflix before their time. It seems unlikely the show will survive elsewhere, but if the fans want it enough, the possibility exists. We’ll just have to wait and see.