Netflix's Cowboy Bebop Season 2 - What We Know So Far

The first season of Netflix's live-action version of "Cowboy Bepop" dropped on November 19, and fans of the original anime are no doubt eager to see how the flesh-and-blood versions of Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) compare to the beloved animated ones. The ten-episode Season 1 is no doubt one of the streaming platform's most important and interesting November releases, and hopes for the show to last beyond the inaugural season are high. In fact, "Cowboy Bepop" showrunner Andre Nemec has already teased some pretty big plans for Season 2. 

As fans of the original "Cowboy Bepop" know, the wild, genre-bending franchise has plenty of stories left to adapt, so it's no wonder that the makers of the Netflix version are eager to tell them. But when can you expect a new season of the live-action show, and what could it be about? Let's take a look at what we know about the release date, cast, and plot of Netflix's "Cowboy Bepop" Season 2. 

Though Netflix hasn't greenlit "Cowboy Bepop" Season 2 quite yet, fans have no need to panic. After all, Season 1 premiered on November 19, so chances are that the streamer will want to wait and see how it fares before going all in on a sophomore season. Per Rotten Tomatoes, early reviews of "Cowboy Bepop" may not have been particularly glowing, but ultimately, the numbers game cares not of the critics. If "Cowboy Bepop" Season 1 does well enough, the show is virtually guaranteed to continue, and news of a renewal could be just around the corner at any given moment.

Assuming that "Cowboy Bepop" Season 2 gets greenlit, the production and promotion cycle for a show like this is likely roughly comparable to major Netflix shows like "Stranger Things," which dropped new seasons every 16 to 21 months before the COVID-19 pandemic. If this is any indication, you can probably expect new episodes of Netflix's "Cowboy Bepop" sometime in mid-to-late 2023. 

Should "Cowboy Bepop" get a second season, you can be pretty certain that the crew of the Bepop lives to fight another day. As such, expect John Cho, Daniella Pineda, and Mustafa Shakir to be back as  Spike Spiegel, Faye Valentine, and Jet Black. Completing the crew, one can expect, will be the Welsh corgi Ein, as well as the remaining bipedal member of the crew, hacking expert "Radical" Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski IV (Eden Perkins).   

Apart from the central cast, it's highly likely that every major character that survives the events of Season 1 will return in some shape, form, or way ... and as Vicious (Alex Hassell) and Julia (Elena Satine) demonstrate in Season 1, their roles could be markedly expanded from what you might remember from the anime. Of course, this being "Cowboy Bepop," there are also tons of memorable one-episode characters who are yet to make an appearance in the live-action show, so be prepared for anything. 

The original "Cowboy Bepop" isn't a particularly long anime series. However, it does have 26 episodes, which should be more than enough to keep the live-action adaptation's wheels turning for a good three or four seasons, should the public so desire, and should the Netflix powers so allow. As such, Season 2 of the live-action version would almost certainly continue to adapt the anime version's overarching narrative, with a level of faithfulness to the source material that should be comparable to Season 1 — though you can probably expect a few twists and tweaks, based on how the fans receive the first season.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, writer Christopher Yost has already stated that if the show gets a second season, the original "Cowboy Bepop" still has plenty of cool moments the Netflix version would be keen to explore. "Across the lore of 'Bepop', there are certain episodes and stories that are just slam dunk, no-brainers to tell. And I would certainly love to tell more of them," he said. "It's always going to be impossible from my point of view to not be thinking about [continuing the show]. So we'll get through Season 1 and then, if there's a Season 2, [I'm] just noodling on what the possibilities could be."