It didn’t take long for Justin Lin to find a new gig after exiting Fast X. He’s signed on to direct One Punch Man for Sony, an adaptation of the worldwide hit manga series. Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, who previously wrote Jumanji: The Next Level and Venom, will pen the script.
One Punch Man follows the story of Saitama, a superhero who can defeat any opponent with a single punch but seeks to find a worthy opponent after growing bored by a lack of challenges in his fight against evil. The studio is reportedly bullish on the concept as a franchise starter.
The manga was originally created in 2009 by Japanese artist ONE as a webcomic, and it quickly went viral. In 2012, it was officially published and huge worldwide sales totalling more than 30 million copies followed. When the English edition debuted in the U.S. in 2015, the first and second volumes made the New York Times Manga Bestsellers list.
Since then, the popularity of One Punch Man has led to a critically acclaimed TV anime series, as well as recent launches of a video and mobile game. It only makes sense for a movie to follow, and Lin is a great choice to helm the project.
He’s often credited with reviving the Fast & Furious franchise, since he helmed the well-liked Fast Five, which kicked off the franchise’s resurgence. He directed two more F&F movies following that, and has also had success with another franchise when he directed Star Trek Beyond in 2016.
As previously reported, Lin had been planning to wrap up the Fast & Furious franchise with Fast X, but left the project due to creative differences that had plenty to do with Vin Diesel‘s system of script rewrites. Louis Leterrier is now directing that film instead.
One Punch Man has plenty of components that make it seem like a good bet to become a successful franchise. The only thing working against it is how flooded the superhero market has become, but Lin has proven to be very adept at this sort of franchise filmmaking, so Sony will be confident that the project is in good hands.
#Peace.Love.OnePunchMan
