Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop Star Daniella Pineda Says She “Would Love For Faye To Have Her Own Spinoff”
Pitching what may be one of the most wildly unpopular ideas of all time, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop star Daniella Pineda has opined that though the widely-panned live-action anime adaptation has come to an end, she “would love for Faye to have her own spinoff”.
Pineda spoke to her hopes for the return of her Whedon-ified version of the series’ iconic purple-haired con artist during a red carpet interview with CinemaBlend given ahead of the premiere of her latest film, Jurassic World: Dominion, in which she reprises her role from the last film as dino-vet Dr. Zia Rodriguez.
Asked by the movie news outlet if she had thoughts to continuing on in the role of Faye, Pineda asserted, “I would love for Faye to have her own spinoff.”
“That was such a crazy experience, and I really wish that we were given a chance,” said the actress. “You know, a lot of shows, they find their own footing, that’s just the truth of it. You find your footing even from the pilot episode into the season. And then Season 2, Season 3, you grow. You develop and you figure things out.”
Pineda then reiterated, “I think it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the chance to do that.”
“But you know, we’ll see,” she concluded. “Who knows? Maybe Faye will come back around. It was a really fun character to play.”
However, as unlikely as it was that a live-action adaptation of a beloved anime series whose entire identity was built around poor writing, fan antagonization, and ignoring input from its original creator would have ever been good, the chances of any character from Netflix’s trainwreck making any future appearances outside of the inevitable Space Jam 2-esque cameo storm so many studios have become so fond of is even more so for one simple reason – hardly anyone wants it.
Aside from nearly every fan of the original series disowning the series for its self-aggrandized bastardization of Shinichirō Watanabe’s work, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop failed to even find its footing among the same critics who would normally lap up any given pandering production.
As of writing, roughly six months following the series’ premiere, the live-action Cowboy Bebop currently holds not only a 46% ‘Rotten’ rating from critics on review aggregate outlet Rotten Tomatoes:
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But also a similar 47% on Metacritic, with most of its praise coming from critics who never engaged with the original anime (such as Newsday’s Verne Gay who, as an example of the audience the Netflix series ultimately appealed to, insists on writing the term as ‘animé’):
With her comments, the series’ primary trio have all weighed in on Cowboy Bebop’s cancellation.
On December 10th, just one day after Netflix announced that they would not be renewing the series, Jet Black actor Mustafa Shakir took to his personal Instagram to reflect on his time as the de facto leader of the Bebop’s crew.
“What a cool opportunity right?,” wrote Shakir alongside a black-and-white image of himself on-set as Jet. “I got to play Jet Black! I’ll never not be him..so to speak. That’s badass to me.”
Noting that “@netflix went balls to wall for us in order to get it done,” the actor then offered his thanks for how “They really looked out for us when s**t hit the fan,” though he did not elaborate on what specific events he was referring to.
However, Shakir then admitted, “But at the end of the day business is business and this was a big ship that needed a lot of fuel,” before reasoning “Maybe the ‘haters’ and the critics got us maybe it wasn’t as good as we thought.”
“All I know is we got this done under the craziest conditions and I’m proud of what we did,” he signed off. “Thank you for dreaming with us. See you space cowboys. Forever yours, Jet Black.”
John Cho, who lead the series as protagonist Spike Spiegel, told The Hollywood Reporter in March that Cowboy Bebop’s cancellation took him by surprise, recalling, “It was just a huge event in my life and it was suddenly over. It was very shocking and I was bummed.”
“But I was very warmed by the response,” the actor added. “I wish I could have contacted everybody and gotten hugs. You can’t do that now, but … I don’t know what this is.”
He concluded, “I’m mystified a little bit about how you can connect with people that you don’t know doing your work, but I won’t question it. I will value it and treasure it. I’m just really deeply appreciative that anyone would care. It’s stunning to me.”
Is there anything anyone could do to make you interested in a Pineda-led Faye Valentine spin-off? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!
NEXT: Netflix’s Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Turns Faye Valentine Bisexual