The Live-Action 'Akira' Movie Is Finally, Officially, Totally Dead

Well… it finally happened. After years of delays, rewrites, mysterious vanishing release dates, and Taika Waititi casually forgetting it existed, Warner Bros. has officially let go of the Akira live-action movie. The rights have reverted back to Kodansha, and honestly? I'm relieved.

Look, I love Taika. Jojo Rabbit broke me. What We Do in the Shadows lives rent-free in my head. But Akira? That's sacred territory. That's the kind of story that's so tied to its time, place, and medium that trying to remake it in live-action Hollywood just feels... wrong. It's like trying to remake The Mona Lisa with AI. We could do it - but… Why?

For years, this adaptation has lived in development limbo, with directors coming and going, and every update feeling like a warning sign wrapped in marketing buzzwords. There were rumors of it being set in "Neo-Manhattan" (no! absolutely not!), casting choices that didn't sit right, and the ever-present fear that someone would try to "modernize" the message into something bland and blockbuster-friendly.

So now that it's off the table, there's a strange sense of relief. Akira the anime still holds up as a flawless masterpiece of cyberpunk storytelling. It doesn't need to be remade. It needs to be re-watched. It needs to be shown to your friends who think anime is just flashy fighting and Naruto runs. It deserves reverence, not reinvention.

So thank you, rights reversion. You might've just saved us from ourselves.