For months, the fans of Cowboy Bebop had been waiting to know the fourth member of the BeBop crew in the live-action Netflix adaptation. It has been finally released, the very day the show premieres on Netflix, that Eden Perkins would be playing the role of the hacker of the ship- Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski IV.
A Twitter account, called NetflixGeeked, provided the first snippet footage of Perkins, who goes by the pronouns they/them. Now, while the entire snippet is just six seconds long, there is something real about Perkins’ theatrical walk that would remind one of Ed from the anime- with the red hair and the outfit. Also, though the anime had labeled Ed as strictly female, the streaming platform has cast a gender-neutral actor for the role.
Cowboy Bebop Vacillates Too Sharply
It has also been confirmed that Ed would come up in the very final episode of the current season of Cowboy Bebop- which implies that Netflix has already commissioned a second season for the series. According to Charles Pulliam-Moore, the show swings between modes too sharply, and often multiple times within the same episode- so it provides a feeling that it is always moving out of sync with its plot and the soundtrack of Yoko Kanno.
Now, after checking out the live-animation Cowboy Bebop, it wouldn’t be amiss to say that the critic is quite spot-on. The characters look so anime-accurate that their appearance is both distracting and awkward- including the costume of Spike Seagal and Jet Black. However, the one positive that can be gleaned out is that Perkins has notched Ed’s loony personality perfectly- so it should make viewing enjoyable.
Another advantage would be that the final episode was incidentally setting Cowboy Bebop for a few more promising installments down the line. So, there is definitely some hope for another season.
