It’s been less than two months since our beloved Fast & Furious familia fractured into two camps: Those who would be a part of Fast X and those who wouldn’t. While we all expected Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to be in the latter, the news of director Justin Lin’s exit hit us like an ice-cold can of NOS energy drink. Lin effectively saved the franchise from irrelevance, steering Vin Diesel’s cash cow from Tokyo Drift to the series high of Fast Five and beyond. He even directed 2021’s F9: The Fast Saga, which saved the movies.
Lin’s exit happened abruptly and without any indication as to where he would be heading. Now we know. Earlier today, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Lin is in talks to direct an adaptation of the beloved Japanese anime, manga, and webcomic One-Punch Man for Sony.
The director certainly has his work cut out for him. Created by the artist ONE in 2009, One-Punch Man is about a disinterested superhero named Saitama who can take out any monster with a single punch. He’s so good at superheroics that he basically does it for fun, with one of the main cruxes of the story being that Saitama is bored because he’s so powerful, a sentiment that we’re sure all of our beautiful, powerful readers relate.
While there’s not much information about what kind of movie this will be, Deadline reports that this will be a live-action adaptation. Thus, Justin Lin is the latest director to try his luck at making a live-action anime adaptation. However, the fact that this is set up at Sony and not Netflix should ease some concerns from anime fans. Additionally, Lin is a fantastic action director, especially when creating the big special effect set-pieces One Punch Man requires. Dare we say it: There’s reason to be slightly optimistic about this one.