John Cho Injured on Set of Netflix’s ‘Cowboy Bebop,’ Production Halted for 7-9 Months

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“Cowboy Bebop” star John Cho sustained a knee injury on the set of the live-action Netflix series while filming in New Zealand in October, Variety has learned, leading to a 7-9 month break in production.

While the nature of the incident that led to the injury is not altogether clear, it occurred during a rehearsed sequence that was not considered to be a large-scale stunt. Cho is back in Los Angeles, where he will undergo surgery, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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Cho posted a Bruce Lee quote on his Instagram page Friday afternoon: “Water can flow or it can crash.”

He added: “Thanks for all the well wishes everyone. Gonna be back and flowing in no time!”

Netflix’s “Cowboy Bebop” is a 10-episode adaptation of the original 26-episode anime series from Sunrise studio, about a group of misfit bounty hunters in space, led by Spike Spiegel. Cho plays Spiegel, described as an “impossibly cool bounty hunter with a deadly smile, a wry wit, and style to spare,” who traverses the solar system with his ex-cop partner, Jet, who will be portrayed by Mustafa Shakir.

Daniella Pineda and Alex Hassell are also part of the main cast, playing Faye Valentine and Spiegel’s nemesis Vicious. The series is a co-production between Netflix and Tomorrow Studios, with Netflix handling physical production.

“Thor: The Dark World” and “Thor: Ragnarok” scribe Christopher Yost was slated to write and exec produce the first episode. Andre Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg of Midnight Radio are also listed as executive producers. Yasuo Miyakawa, Masayuki Ozaki, and Shin Sasaki of Sunrise Inc., the studio behind the original series, are executive producing along with Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements of Tomorrow Studios, Tetsu Fujimura, and Matthew Weinberg.

Deadline first reported the news.

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