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Legendary Produces Hollywood Live-Action Film of My Hero Academia Manga

Legendary Entertainment announced on Wednesday that it is producing a live-action film based on Kōhei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia manga. Álex García and Jay Ashenfelter are overseeing the project for Legendary Entertainment, while Ryōsuke Yoritomi, the manga's editor, will oversee the project for Shueisha. TOHO will distribute the film in Japan.

Viz Media is publishing the manga in English, and it describes the story:

What would the world be like if 80 percent of the population manifested superpowers called "Quirks" at age four? Heroes and villains would be battling it out everywhere! Being a hero would mean learning to use your power, but where would you go to study? The Hero Academy of course! But what would you do if you were one of the 20 percent who were born Quirkless?

Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn't got an ounce of power in him. With no chance of ever getting into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes, his life is looking more and more like a dead end. Then an encounter with All Might, the greatest hero of them all, gives him a chance to change his destiny...

Horikoshi launched the superhero manga series in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in July 2014. Shueisha published the manga's 20th compiled book volume on September 4. Viz Media is publishing the manga in English digitally in its Weekly Shonen Jump magazine and in print. The manga has also inspired the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes spinoff manga, which Viz Media is also releasing in English. Both the main manga and the spinoff together have 17 million copies in print.

The manga has inspired three television anime series, and a fourth season is in the works. The third 25-episode series premiered on April 7.

The My Hero Academia: Two Heroes film opened in Japan on August 3, and has since earned more than 1.5 billion yen (about US$13.46 million) at the Japanese box office. Funimation screened the film in the United States and Canada from September 25 to October 11, and the film earned US$5,768,366, unseating Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises as the #10 highest-grossing domestic anime film of all time.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter (Aaron Couch), Deadline (Patrick Hipes, Geoff Boucher), Variety (Dave McNary)