Back in July, Lionsgate officially announced a worldwide casting search for the three lead protagonists, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha, in the upcoming live-action movie. They asked multiple casting agencies worldwide to find fully Asian or mixed-Asian actors for the roles. They looked in regions like Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong, as well as the US and the UK. At the time, they were seeking actors aged 18-20 to play 16-year-old characters in the film. Many fans assumed they would age the characters up from 12 to 16. Then, the studio recently announced a new casting call, searching for actors between 13 and 15 to play the characters. Could this be for the main leads, or just the characters in flashback scenes?
We at Knight Edge Media learned exclusively that writer and director Daniel Destin Cretton recently submitted a new draft of the film in which the three protagonists are younger (it is unknown whether they are exactly 12 or 13). While fans didn’t object much when they were going to be 16, the characters do start the manga at 12. However, the studio will now face an aging problem that some live-action adaptations face, such as Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. Originally, Gordon Cormier was 11 when he was cast as Aang in 2021, but the production team had to wait years for Netflix to greenlight additional seasons. While this is common practice, Cormier was noticeably much taller by the time season 2 was released, and many fans online made fun of his deeper voice at almost 16. Because of this, the showrunners had to invent a time jump between seasons to explain why he looked older, and it was simply unavoidable: you can’t stop a child from growing, even if the original character stays 12 the entire time. This will also happen with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.
While Lionsgate has committed to only one film so far, it’ll be years before we find out whether a sequel gets greenlit. Fans should expect a time jump, and Naruto will not stay 12 the entire time. Movie adaptations like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson had multiple books to draw from. In every subsequent novel, the characters are a year older, and it’s already built into the story. Every summer Percy revisits Camp Half-Blood, and every fall Harry starts a new year at Hogwarts. However, when you’re adapting a manga (or a cartoon) where the characters don’t age, a time jump is unavoidable. You need to write it in for a live-action adaptation, even if fans will inevitably detest it. Imagine trying to adapt Ash Ketchmen in Pokémon? He has literally been 10 years old for the last 20 years.
Naruto has no set release date
- Lionsgate changed the casting call for the live-action Naruto movie, seeking younger actors aged 13 to 15 for the lead roles.
- Director Daniel Destin Cretton submitted a new script draft featuring younger protagonists, moving closer to their original starting age of 12.
- Casting younger actors creates a predictable aging problem, forcing the production to rely on time jumps for future sequels just like Netflix did with Avatar: The Last Airbender.
