#Live-Action Gundam Movie Gets New Director

Deadline reports that the live-action Gundam film will now be directed and written by Jim Mickle, the showrunner of fantasy show Sweet Tooth.

Previously, Kong: Skull Island‘s Jordan Vogt-Roberts was tapped to direct and produce with Y: The Last Man author Brian K. Vaughan writing the script. 

It was also reported that Mickle will co-produce the Gundam film with partner Linda Moran via their company, and that production is planned to begin in early 2025. 

Another change for the Legendary and Bandai Namco Filmworks (then Sunrise) co-production is the absence of Netflix, who was supposed to stream the film worldwide (outside China).

The movie was first announced in 2018, and a piece of concept art (the feature image for this article) was released in 2021.

The first entry in the Gundam franchise was Mobile Suit Gundam, which first aired in 1979. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, Mobile Suit Gundam introduced viewers to the Universal Century timeline and mecha conflicts that were more grounded than Super Robot fare. 

Following Mobile Suit Gundam, there have been multiple sequels, spin-offs, and later titles that share its fictional universe, as well as shows like Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Mobile Suit Gundam Seed that have their own universes.

Crunchyroll describes the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime as:

Universal Century 0079. The rebel space colonies of the Principality of Zeon launch a war of independence against the Earth Federation, using humanoid fighting vehicles called mobile suits to overwhelm the Federation Forces and conquer half of Earth’s surface. Months later, the Federation has finally developed its own prototype mobile suits at a remote space colony. But when the colony suffers a Zeon surprise attack, these new weapons fall into the hands of a motley crew of civilians and cadets. Fate places a youth named Amuro Ray at the controls of the white mobile suit Gundam…