Netflix's live-action Cowboy Bebop already has 'big plans' for a potential Season 2

Netflix has yet to renew its live-action Cowboy Bebop series for a second season, but showrunner Andre Nemec (Alias, Zoo) will be ready to hit the ground running if and when that day comes.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter at the show's world red carpet premiere in Los Angeles last week, the executive producer said he already has "big plans" for a potential sophomore outing, and wants Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos to be well aware of that fact. “We definitely know where we want to go, and I’m excited that we get to tell those stories," he said. "Fingers crossed that we get more Cowboy Bebop.”

“Because it’s beloved, we did not want to screw it up,” added fellow executive producer Becky Clements. “We were terrified because the fan base was so loyal. We always had an eye toward making sure we kept the integrity of the original in the live-action."

Based on the fan favorite anime from the 1990s, the project follows a group of spacefaring bounty hunters: Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), Faye Valentine (Danielle Pineda), and their data-storing Corgi, Ein (played by two separate dogs on the Netflix series). Luckily, the live-action production benefitted from the involvement of two Bebop veterans: original director Shinichirō Watanabe and original composer Yoko Kanno.

“Yoko and I worked together very, very closely through the core of the episodes in their conception, before they were shot, and then after they were shot and edited,” Nemec told SYFY WIRE last month. “At times, you will hear the same things out of Yoko's music, but yet no one wants to be served the same meal so there are so many new and beautiful things brought to the table in the live action too.”

Geoff Stults (Chalmers), Tamara Tunie (Ana), Mason Alexander Park (Gren), Rachel House (Mao), Ann Truong & Hao Xuande (Shin and Lin), and Elena Satine (Julia) round out the supporting cast. Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum Scott Rosenberg, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, Makoto Asanuma, Shin Sasaki, Masayuki Ozaki, Tim Coddington, Tetsu Fujimura, Michael Katleman, Matthew Weinberg, and Christopher Yost are executive producers.

With the review embargo lifted today, critics are decidedly mixed on the flesh-and-blood iteration (it currently holds a score of 41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). All 10 episodes of Cowboy Bebop premiere on Netflix this coming Friday — Nov. 19.

In the meantime, audience members can either introduce or reacquaint themselves with all 26 episodes of the anime, which is now streaming (the OG voice cast was brought back to dub their characters in the live-action version).