Amazon Prime Video has announced Like A Dragon: Yakuza, a new TV show based on the wildly popular series of Sega video games.
The announcement came out of absolutely nowhere. There had been no hint that the show was happening at Amazon, no leaks, no scuttlebutt. That Amazon was able to keep the secret right up until it blasted the messaging out on social is something of a minor miracle.
The show is apparently eight episodes long, each lasting 60 minutes. It will be loosely based on Yakuza Kiwami, the recent remaster of the original Yakuza game that debuted on the PlayStation 2. Amazon says that Japanese actor Ryoma Takeuchi will play the series’ legendary leading man, Kazama Kiryu. Takeuchi is best known to Western audiences for a bit part in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, but very well known in Japan for the drama series The Naked Director.
This is not the first Yakuza TV show, either. A two-season programme called Kurohyo: Ryu ga Gotoku Shinsho aired in Japan from 2010, based on characters from the first handheld Yakuza game. Legendary Japanese director Takeshi Miike also made a film adaptation in 2007 that is considered decidedly ‘OK.’
The show becomes Amazon’s latest big bet on TV adaptations of video game IP. Fallout, which released in April, quickly became one of the platform’s biggest ever hits.
Like A Dragon: Yakuza will premiere on Prime Video on October 24.
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