From the Library: covers, censuses, and editions, documented. Browse the Library →
SOJ My Hero Academia · Live-Action Film
← Back to the Library

What is the My Hero Academia live-action film?

Announced in 2018, still in development: Hollywood’s longest hero course.

The live-action film has been in development longer than the anime took to finish. Legendary Pictures acquired the rights in October 2018, with Toho set to distribute in Japan. Japanese director Shinsuke Sato, of the Gantz and Kingdom adaptations, was attached to direct. Netflix acquired the film on 12 December 2022, with Joby Harold writing, placing it in the streamer’s run of live-action anime adaptations.

The most recent documented movement came in September 2025: Jason Fuchs was hired to rewrite the screenplay, with Sato reaffirmed as director. As of this writing the film remains in development, uncast and undated: the one major version of the story that the manga’s ending, the anime’s ending, and even the games’ finale have all beaten to the screen.

THE TIMELINE

2018 to today
October 2018
Legendary acquires the rights, months after Two Heroes proves the franchise travels. Toho takes Japanese distribution, as with the anime films.
December 2022
Netflix boards the film; Joby Harold is the screenwriter of record. The project joins the post-One Piece generation of live-action anime bets.
September 2025
Jason Fuchs is hired to rewrite; Sato remains director. Development continues in public, one trade announcement every few years.

THE CONTEXT

What surrounds it
The director’s shelf
Sato is the safe pair of hands for this material in Japan: Gantz, I Am a Hero, Kingdom. His attachment has survived every draft of the project.
The manga ended first
When the rights were sold, the story had four years left to run. Any film now adapts a finished work, which changes the adaptation problem completely.
The stage did it live already
Four Japanese stage productions performed the story live between 2019 and 2023. Whatever Hollywood eventually ships, it will not be the first live My Hero Academia.

THE MY HERO ACADEMIA SHELF

More from this archive
Stage Plays
The live versions that actually opened.
The Movies
The four animated films, all delivered.
The Ending
The story the film must now adapt whole.
More from the Library
MORE FROM THE MY HERO ACADEMIA ARCHIVE →
One shelf of the Library. Browse them all →

THE FIRST WORD

New pages and new pieces, first.