Much like Majima Everywhere, out of nowhere today the official Ryu Ga Gotoku Twitter account and Amazon announced that the Like a Dragon video game series is inspiring a live-action series based on the life of Kazuma Kiryu. Titled Like a Dragon: Yakuza, the series will tell a story of Kiryu’s life that the games “have not been able to explore.”
The series is set to be directed by Masaharu Take (The Naked Director) with scripts from Sean Crouch (The 100) & Yugo Nakamura and Japanese scripts from Yasuhiro Yoshida and Kana Yamada. Ryoma Takeuchi, who is known as Kamen Rider Drive and the Red stand-in in Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, will play Kiryu.
Masayoshi Yokoyama, the head of Ryu Ga Gotoku and writer for the Like a Dragon franchise since its inception in 2005 on the PlayStation 2, said “I have no doubt that fans of the series will be drawn to how it brings the games to life and adds new surprises. Newcomers, I’m sure will find themselves invested simply in the gritty realism of the show.”
Director Masaharu Take explained that he has “poured out my heart, soul, and the experience that I have garnered over 35 years into Like a Dragon: Yakuza.”
Like a Dragon: Yakuza is set to be streamed worldwide over six episodes on Amazon Prime Video starting October 24 with the first three episodes and the last three episodes streaming a week later. The series will be dubbed/subbed in 30 languages.
Amazon Prime Video describes the series as such:
In 1995 and 2005, spanning across two time-periods, Like a Dragon: Yakuza, an original crime-suspense-action series, follows the life, childhood friends, and repercussions of the decisions of Kazuma Kiryu, a fearsome and peerless Yakuza warrior with a strong sense of justice, duty, and humanity.
Sources: Ryu Ga Gotoku on Twitter, Amazon Prime Video
