47 Ronin is getting a sequel! Deadline reports that the 2013 film will be getting an as-yet untitled follow-up on Netflix, directed by Mulan star Ron Yuan, who has both directing credits (Step Up: China Year for the Dance) and action directing credits (Wild Card, Black Dynamite) under his belt.
It’s unknown whether the eternally busy Keanu Reeves will be returning, but the plot certainly sounds very Reeves-ian. According to Collider, the film will be set 300 years into our future, or about 6 centuries after the original film, which took place in the Edo period, and Yuan describes the sequel as a “genre-blending, martial arts, action, horror and cyber-punk film.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the only samurai-related IP with a cyberpunk sequel that will debut on Netflix. As was announced last month, Stan Sakai’s iconic Usagi Yojimbo comic books will be getting a “comedy-action CGI animated series” called Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles. Whereas the original comics also took place during Edo Japan and followed the great warrior Miyamoto Usagi (based off of real-life non-rabbit samurai Miyamoto Musashi), the series takes place in the “far future” and follows his descendant, the teenage Rabbit Samurai Yuichi. (If Reeves did end up signing onto the 47 Ronin sequel, we could see him playing a descendant of his character Kai, who for spoiler-related reasons probably couldn’t be preserved, An American Pickle-style, for 600 years.)
Yuan can next be seen as Sergeant Qiang in the live-action remake of Mulan, which will be released on Disney+ September 4. The 47 Ronin sequel will be produced by Universal 1440 Entertainment, and there’s no word yet on casting or a release date.
