Yakuza live-action adaptation — release date, cast and crew, trailer, and everything we know about the project so far

Sega’s teaming up with 1212 Entertainment and Wild Sheep Content for a live-action adaptation of Yakuza, it’s best-selling video-game series since Sonic the Hedgehog.

Variety reported the news back in September of 2020.

Yakuza movie or TV show in development

“Yakuza offers us a new playground in which to set compelling stories with complex characters in a unique environment that audiences have rarely seen before,” 1212 told Variety.

“The saga of Kazuma Kiryu has a built-in cinematic appeal — a mix of kinetic action with bursts of comedy, multiple converging storylines, and a gripping journey towards redemption.”

What’s Yakuza about?

In the video games, a man named Kiryu is let out of prison after serving a 10-year sentence for a murder he didn’t commit — the murder of his family’s patriarch.

“After the entire Japanese underworld is pulled into the search for $100 million stolen from the vault of his former clan,” Variety writes, “Kiryu is forced back into the lawless world of the yakuza.”

Japanese director Takashi Miike adapted the original game for the 2007 film Like a Dragon. That version starred Kazuki Kitamura, from Kill Bill and The Raid 2.

Yakuza adaptation cast and crew

At this stage, the project’s producers are reaching out to various writers about handling the script. There’s no word yet who might direct or star in the adaptation.

Yakuza adaptation trailer

We still don’t know whether this’ll end up as a TV series or film, but we might see a trailer in a year or two.

Yakuza adaptation release date

The live-action Yakuza is still a long ways off. We’ll continue to update this hub with all the latest news about the project.