Here He Comes. Here Comes 'Speed Racer!' JJ Abrams And AppleTV+ Are Making A Live-Action Series!
JJ Abrams has had his hands in a few franchise cookie jars over the years. Everything from Star Trek and Star Wars to Mission: Impossible, and more, and it has been announced that next up for the director/writer/producer will be heading up a show based on the popular manga series and 80's cartoon, Speed Racer.
According to Variety, he has a live-action Speed Racer series in the pipe over at Apple TV+ under Abram's Bad Robot production company, which is under contract with Warner Bros. and has already been given the green light to go to series.
The show revolves around a talented young driver named Speed Racer, who, along with his family/team, competes in acrobatic-like car races using a tricked-out car called the Mach 5 - created by his mechanic dad, Pops Racer. Throughout the series, Speed gets entangled in crazy adventures, involving villains in the racing circuit.
This new iteration will be spearheaded by Ron Fitzgerald and Hiram Martinez, who will write, executive produce, and be acting as co-showrunners. Fitzgerald, who worked on Westworld, Perry Mason, Weeds, and Friday Night Lights, brings a strong pedigree to the project, along with Martinez, who recently worked on Snowpiercer the series and Snowfall.
This is not the first time Speed Racer has been brought into the real world - so to speak. The Wachowskis made a feature film back in 2008, with Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and Christina Ricci. Drenched in wildly colorful and trippy effects, the film was not a huge hit with fans, though it proved that it could be done.
(Honestly, it's pretty fun.)
A release date for Speed Racer has not been announced at this time.
