Netflix Is Developing A ‘Death Note’ Sequel
Despite facing a critical thrashing and controversy surrounding the whitewashing of its characters,Death Noteis alive and well at Netflix.
ADeath Notesequel is reportedly being developed by the streaming giant, taking the adaptation of the acclaimed anime and manga to even more gruesome depths. Here’s all we know aboutDeath Note 2.
It seemed likeDeath Notewould have been dead in the water before it even premiered. Hounded by whitewashing controversies that hadsunk several blockbuster filmsbefore it and based off a beloved manga series,Death Notedebuted on Netflix last summer toabysmal reviewsand outcry from fans of the original manga byTsugumi OhbaandTakeshi Obata.
But we all know that wouldn’t stop Netflix. In fact, based on the company’s reaction to outcry against13 Reasons Whyand the critical blasting ofBright, that probably only madeDeath Notestronger.
Perhaps it was the hate clicks. Perhaps theAdam Wingardfans came out in droves. Or perhaps people truly liked this edgy, brutal take on the series. Whatever the case,The Hollywood Reporter(viaComingSoon.net) noted that Netflix chief content officerTed Sarandoscalled the firstDeath Notea “sizable” success, which is apparently enough to greenlight a sequel that will be penned byGreg Russo.
Death Notefollows a Seattle high school student Light (Nat Wolff) who stumbles upon a supernatural notebook that gives him the power to kill anyone by writing their name while picturing their face. The notebook comes equipped with its own god of death, Ryuk (Willem Dafoe, the only saving grace of the film), who watches with amusement as Light becomes intoxicated with the power of the notebook and uses it to change the world into a “utopia” without crime. That is, if he’s not caught by his police detective father and the genius FBI profiler L (LaKeith Stanfield) first.
Wingard’s American adaptation ofDeath Notetakes some (bad) creative licenses from the original manga, deviating from the storyline quite a bit. But the fantastically campy Japanese live-action film did so as well, and went on to spawn two wildly entertaining sequels. SoDeath Note 2could feasibly strike out on its own (why?) or adapt the second half of the manga series, which follows a new set of detectives on the trail of Light, or as he’s known in the serial killer community, Kira.
Unfortunately, the latter half of the manga series is boring as hell, and I don’t know if I trust theDeath Notecreative team to improve upon it when they botched the adaptation of the best part of the manga. I’m still baffled that Netflix is moving forward with this sequel at all, but as Netflix chief Reed Hastings so callously put it in response to the13 Reasons Whybacklash, “nobody has to watch it.”
