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Anime has arguably never been bigger than it is right now and, though the genre has had some wobbles lately, we’re still deep in the age of superheroes dominating the box office, so it makes sense that a U.S.-made live-action One Punch Man movie is in the works. Word broke last week that the film was getting its third set of writers to rework its script, with Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon the latest one penning the One Punch Man movie.

At first glance, this seems like an odd pairing, but we can see the logic here. One Punch Man, at its heart, is a silly show about a hero who can overcome any challenge with one punch, man. At one point, Saitama defeats an enemy by accidentally slapping them in the testicles. In one of the later chapters of the manga, he farts so hard he launches himself from one of Jupiter’s moons back to Earth. This is not a serious anime, even if the action is gorgeous and intense.

Rick and Morty is a much cruder version of this humor, but it is cut from the same cloth, so the idea of Dan Harmon, who was one of the people behind the show in the first place, penning the script along with fellow Rick and Morty writer Heather Anne Campbell isn’t unreasonable. We would argue that leaning into that humor is necessary to keep the One Punch Man movie from feeling like an off-brand Superman parody, which is what it will be if they try to play it too straight.

The One Punch Man live-action movie has been in the works since 2020, but this script rewrite suggests we’re still not close to seeing it hit theaters. Thankfully, we’ve got a new season of the anime to look forward to on the horizon.

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