Back in July, Lionsgate officially began a worldwide search for the three lead heroes in the upcoming Naruto live-action movie. Interestingly, the casting call sought actors over 18 to play the characters as 16-year-olds. Many fans assumed they would simply “age up” the characters from 12 to 16 for the live-action film, but still have the story begin with the first arc of the manga. Even though the characters are already 16 in the second series, Naruto: Shippuden. That seems not to be the case.
Now, director Destin Daniel Cretton and the US casting director Carmen Cuba Casting have released a second open casting call for the roles of Naruto and Sakura. For this casting call, they are looking for Asian or mixed-Asian child actors aged 13 to 15. They’re looking for kids with gymnastics, dance, or martial arts backgrounds, but no prior acting experience is needed. We at Knight Edge Media can confirm they are also currently casting older Asian actors for the role of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. They are aiming pretty high for the role.
This is pure speculation, but with this second casting call, it seems they might not be aging up the characters at all. They could cast Naruto and Sakura as they are in the anime when they first join Team 7 via flashbacks. Interestingly. There is no second casting call for Sasuke. Which means they already have a young actor in mind, or it’s after he leaves to go train under Orochimaru. It’ll be interesting if Destin really does show flashbacks to the original Naruto and flash-forwards to Naruto: Shippuden in his live-action adaptation. Another possibility is that the movie won’t adapt any specific arc and will be an original story set in the same universe with callbacks to specific scenes from the manga, like in 2009’s Star Trek reboot. Production begins this January in the UK.
Naruto has no set release date