Before the WGA strike began in May, Lionsgate developed a new draft for their long-in-development Naruto live-action movie. The new draft was written by female screenwriter Tasha Huo (Red Sonja) after a previous draft was written by Jonathan Levine in 2020. Daniel Ritchman has revealed on his Patreon that the studio was courting Ken Watanabe for a role in the film. The report mentions he “would be from Naruto’s school”, which leaves the list of names small.
Ritchman tries to guess possibly Kakashi-sensei (who is only 25) or maybe Master Jarayai (who appears much later). Iif the movie starts at the beginning of the anime/manga, he could very well be up for Sarutobi-sensei, the Third Hokage. However, he was never signed onto the film due to the eventual SAG strike. Michael Gracey has been attached to direct for many years.
Naruto has no set release date