47 Ronin – Picture: Universal Pictures
A follow-up to the Keanu Reeves movie 47 Ronin is on the way and will drop onto Netflix. We’ve got everything you need to know on the sequel that will head to Netflix but likely only in the United States in October 2022.
Based on a fictionalized account of a samurai living in 18th-century Japan, the movie released in 2013 served as the directorial debut for Carl Rinsch. Universal Pictures released the movie with H2F Entertainment, Relatively Media, and perhaps crucially, Stuber Productions (Scott Stuber now runs Netflix’s movie division) behind the film.
Continuing 47 Ronin may be a surprise to some, given the 2013 movie has gone down as one of the biggest box office bombs of the past decade (reportedly losing $175 million). Despite a big budget and Keanu Reeves leading the cast, the movie failed to make a serious impact.
The film was first in development in August 2020 when Deadline revealed that Ron Yuan, who recently featured in Disney’s Mulan, would direct.
Universal’s 1440 arm is producing Blade of the 47 Ronin, essentially the B-tier offshoot that produces lower-budget movies or offshoots to Universal’s top IP. Some of the titles in their arsenal include Doom: Annihilation, most of the Tremors movies, and Dragonheart: Vengeance. This year, The Munsters notably came to Netflix as part of the deal between Netflix US and Universal 1440.
In April 2021, it was revealed that Aimee Garcia (known for Netflix’s Lucifer) is teaming up with author AJ Mendez as scribes for the film. The pair recently teamed as co-authors on the comic book companion series for Netflix’s GLOW.
Producing the movie is Convergence Entertainment, with producers Tim Kwok, John Orlando, and Share Stallings attached.
The logline for the sequel is as follows:
“The sequel to the 2013 pic will be set 300 years into the future in an exotic cyberpunk world. The film will be a fresh, re-imagined take on the original feature and will incorporate horror along with modern samurai and ninja elements.”
When will Blade of the 47 Ronin be on Netflix?
Netflix announced as part of its October 2022 lineup that Blade of the 47 Ronin would be touching down on Netflix on October 25th, 2022.
Couple of things to note here.
The title is not listed as a Netflix Original as previously thought. Instead, it’ll likely be a day-and-date Netflix release alongside VOD and its physical release.
Secondly, because it’s not a Netflix Original, it’s unclear whether it’ll be a global release. The movie may only be released in the US as per other Universal 1440 titles.
Who will star in Blade of the 47 Ronin?
Here’s a breakdown of who will feature in Blade of the 47 Ronin.
- Anna Akana
- Mark Dacascos
- Mike Moh
- Teresa Ting
- Akira Koieyama
- Chikako Fukuyama
- Luna Fujimoto
- Nino Furuhata
We’ll keep you posted as we learn more about the direct-to-Netflix project from Universal 1440 as and when we get it.