Netflix Japan is currently having the Netflix Japan 2021 Festival where they highlighted upcoming global series and films. And much to my, and I guess every Gundam fan’s surprise, they included the Sunrise and Legendary Pictures jointly produced untitled Gundam live-action movie. Not much was revealed though they’ve provided our first look at the Gundam, at least as a concept art.
It’s still unknown if this movie will be an adaptation of an existing work or it will be a new story using concepts from the 40 years of the franchise. But at least we now have our first look of what the Gundam might look like, as this is concept art and will be subject to change. This Gundam appears to be inside a hangar in flames, like how the Unicorn Gundam was when it first launched. We can also see that some of the internal mechanisms and structural components are exposed due to damage. Much of the details are hidden in shadows so I did what any fan would do to get more details from this image.
And that of course is to Photoshop this image enough to get more details. I didn’t overdo it like others might but at least we have a better look of the mobile suit itself.
Going from the head unit, you can see that it’s not really a direct copy of the RX-78-2’s. The v-antenna center piece is also more like something from the Strike or Freedom Gundam with the square shape as compared to the pentagon of the original. The side vents also have larger holes, and we don’t see the traditional double Vulcan guns, though it appears to have one at the right side of the v-antenna jewel piece.
As for the torso unit, it looks like the front piece has taken damage, with much of the underlying skeletal and support structure is exposed. On the top flanking the center collar part are horizontal vents, though we can’t see if this will have the more traditional larger vent parts at the mid-chest region. And of course, we have two beam saber handles mounted at the back.
The shoulder armors have the basic shape shared with the RX-78-2 but it does have several panels that provide surface details. Much of the armor on the arms are stripped off but you can see all those exposed mechanical details and cabling work.
The waist armors are also different. The front pieces have two protruding bars going vertically with vents at the bottom. The side armors are also longer when compared to the front pieces. It also doesn’t appear to have a center crotch piece where we see that “V” detail common to Federation mobile suits. And of course, the legs and feet are hidden off frame so there’s nothing to see there.
Overall, I like how the design isn’t just lifted off straight from the RX-78-2 Gundam, but it’s still a basic mobile suit design that gives off that prototype feel. It also takes elements from various mobile suit designs and make it seamlessly fit to this one. As mentioned, not much has been revealed about this movie outside of Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) directing and Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man) taking the screenplay. Both Sunrise and Legendary are overseeing this project so I have a comfortable level of confidence on it.
I’ve included the reveal clip below which you can also use to check out the other upcoming titles, including the live action One Piece series/
