One Punch Man Movie - What We Know So Far

One Punch Man is a phenomenon. The story of the impossibly strong superhero fighting the tedium that comes with being able to defeat any enemy easily struck a nerve with manga and anime fans worldwide when it arrived in 2015, launching volume after volume of collected comics and several seasons of a beloved television show. Given the overwhelmingly positive response to ONE and Yusuke Murata's creation, a movie adaptation was as inevitable as Saitama defeating demons with a single blow. 

Variety reports that Sony Pictures has snapped up the rights to Saitama and Genos' struggles against evil and ennui, hoping to launch another franchise in a market seemingly dominated by their competitors at DC and Marvel. While no one spoke on the record to the Hollywood trade publication, they do cite insiders who note Sony's excitement over the new project. The studio has tagged Venom co-writers Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner to pen the script for the sure-to-be highly anticipated adaptation.

The One Punch Man movie is in still in its early stages, and no release date has been shared. The adaptation will come from the production team of Arad Productions, whose Avi Arad and Ari Arad, while they aren't likely household names outside of certain Los Angeles zip codes, have had a hand in plenty of recognizable films. Avi Arad helped produce every single Spider-Man movie, all of the X-Men films and Rosenberg and Pinker's Venom. 

The news of a feature-length One Punch Man adaptation comes as Sony's entire release schedule is somewhat up in the air. The studio shuffled many of its upcoming releases in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Their upcoming movie Greyhound has been pushed back indefinitely. The film Fatherhood was moved to this October to accommodate several delayed films that have been pushed into 2021. Peter Rabbit 2, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Morbius and Uncharted have all seen their releases delayed by up to seven months.

Reports reveal that the movie will be a live-action take on the long-running comic, but it's still far too early to attach any Hollywood A-listers to the project. Outside of the writing team and production company, no names have been shared. Fans can take the ball and run with it, sharing their dream castings for crucial roles like Saitama while we await more news from the studio.

Given the CV of the writers and producers involved, the One Punch Man project should have little problem pulling in talent. Avi Arad's record creating summer blockbusters is nigh unimpeachable. Rosenberg and Pinker's recent projects have all been box offices successes, ranging from the rebooted Jumanji franchise to the aforementioned Venom. Jumanji: The Next Level pulled in $796 million at the global box office and Venom was one of the surprise hits of 2018, performing well enough to warrant a sequel.

It's too early to know what tack Rosenberg and Pinker will take when trying to introduce One Punch Man to a wider audience. They'll have their choice of plenty of storylines when they do sit down to write, since One Punch Man has run for nearly 11 years, starting as a webcomic in 2009 and growing from there. After the franchise achieved viral success, manga publisher Shueisha snapped up the series and has churned out books ever since. An anime began production in 2015, with two seasons being released in the United States and a third in the works.

The movie may focus on any number of arcs from the source material, or it could be a wholly original take. If Sony doesn't follow the standard origin story route, the tournament arc from the second season of the series could make for an excellent introduction to all of the world's key players. Since all of Earth's fighters have to gather in one place for the season-long martial arts tournament, it could be rich soil for a franchise-launching movie.