Cowboy Bebop: John Cho's Accident Almost Required Drastic Production Changes
John Cho is one of the stars of the new Netflix series, "Cowboy Bebop," which was developed by André Nemec and is based on the Japanese anime series of the same name. Set in the year 2071, the series follows a group of bounty hunters who board the Bebop spaceship to track down criminals. Cho plays Spike Spiegel, a Mars-born bounty hunter who has a history with gang violence.
The series is scheduled to hit Netflix tomorrow, November 19, following production delays due to a serious on-set injury of Cho's: a torn ACL. Back in 2019, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Cho had injured his knee while filming "Cowboy Bebop" and that, as a result, production had been suspended. Cho told Vulture in an August 2021 interview that he was thinking about his "Cowboy Bebop" character the entire time he was at home recovering. He said, "I'm at home doing these knee exercises, coming off the drugs, and I was thinking about Cowboy Bebop. Every day. I don't think I've ever thought about a single role more."
Now, Cho has opened up about the injury again, this time on "The Late Late Show with James Corden." While talking about the injury, Cho also revealed the other options that were considered before production was delayed.
CGI and creative film angles were both considered
During the interview, James Corden brought up the ACL injury and asked Cho when they knew they were going to have to stop production. Cho responded that, at first, they were exploring "other scenarios" that would allow them to avoid having to delay filming.
Cho said, "They were talking about maybe doing 'The Irishman' face thing," referring to the use of CGI to put his face on somebody else's body. However, Cho implies that the CGI option would have cost too much, so they thought up other ideas. Cho explained the next option, "And we talked about maybe sitting on a stool while shooting me from the waist up, but they decided, 'This is dangerous.'"
Cho then revealed it took almost a year to fully recover from his injury, but luckily they were able to finish production with "the surgically repaired knee." Cho concluded, while knocking on the wooden coffee table, "So far, so good."