After months of delays, the Lord of the Rings prequel series by Amazon and the live action remake of Cowboy Bebop by Netflix resume production this week. Funnily enough though, the delays aren’t for the reason you think it is.

What do you mean: “It’s not COVID-19’s fault?!”

Sure, the Lord of the Rings series did stop production in the middle of March because of a certain viral pandemic. However, they were already planning to put a 4-5 month hiatus on production anyways. Why, you may ask? Well, Lord of the Rings is being filmed in New Zealand, and New Zealand winters are apparently no joke. Plus, all that snow would clash with Numenor’s rise to power. Fortunately, not all is in vain. The production team have nearly finished 2 episodes, and have used the hiatus to properly plan out Season 2. It’s a bit optimistic of them, seeing as how we haven’t even seen Season 1 yet. But hey, glass half-full, right?

“Go on a trip to Mordor, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.”

LOTR and Cowboy Bebop: We Were Hiatus-ing Anyways

As for the live action version of Cowboy Bebop, it was already on hiatus when the pandemic hit, so its production wasn’t unduly affected. Why? Apparently, the lead actor playing Spike Spiegel, John Cho, suffered a knee injury during production. The injury was serious enough that he had to rest for 7-9 months to recover. We don’t know how the injury occurred, only that it was a “freak accident” during “the last take of a routine and well-rehearsed scene”. My money’s on an Ed prank gone horribly wrong.

Possibly the prank involved water?

This means that, for once, it’s not COVID-19’s fault here. Hopefully, it also means that Netflix’s production staff now have had ample time to perfect Cowboy Bebop to its ultimate potential. I’d be perfectly happy if it manages to capture the spirit of the original anime, at least. At the very least, having Shinichiro Watanabe himself as a creative consultant and Yoko Kanno as the composer bodes well for the series.

Well, I like Ein’s actor. You can never go wrong with Pembroke Welsh Corgis.

Conclusion

The Lord of the Rings prequel series and the Cowboy Bebop series will resume production this week after months long hiatuses. Both of their hiatuses were for reasons other than COVID-19, but the end result is the same. Let’s hope they both used the time wisely.

Source: JoBlo.com