He’s an animated action hero!
Actor LaKeith Stanfield is playing the first African samurai in a new Netflix anime series, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Stanfield is gearing up to lead the voice cast of Yasuke, an anime named for the first African samurai. The series is set in Japan, riddled with war and magic, centering around Yasuke as he battles to live in peace after a lifetime of violence. Yasuke is thrust back into battle when a local village comes under attack by warring daimyo, and the warrior is tasked with transporting a mysterious child haunted by dark forces.
LeSean Thomas is director, creator and executive producer of the project with designs by Takeshi Koike and animation production from MAPPA. The series was announced this week during Netflix’s Anime Festival in Japan. The streaming giant has been working to bring more inclusive anime to the network, recording more than 100 million households who have watched at least one anime title between October 2019 and September 2020, with anime ranking Top 10 in nearly 100 countries this year alone.
Yasuke will be one of five new anime projects coming to Netflix along with new looks and updates for at least 11 others. Other projects include Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure, High-Rise Invasion, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, and The Way of the Househusband. Updates will come for multiple titles, including Pacific Rim: Black, the Resident Evil anime series, EDEN, Vampire in the Garden, Godzilla Singular Point, Transformers: War for the Cybertron Trilogy, Trese, B: The Beginning Succession, Baki Hanma, and Spriggan.
No word yet on when Yasuke will air, but we’re excited! Congratulations LaKeith!
Photo Courtesy of EW.com