Laeta Kalogridis, a screenwriter and producer for Netflix, announced in an interview with Collider that Reki Kawahara’s Sword Art Online light novels will be receiving a live-action television series on Netflix at some point in the future. No official release date has been announced, but it was mentioned the licensing rights have been sold to Netflix to produce the series. It was also mentioned in the interview that Kirito and Asuna would be played by Japanese actors for the television adaptation.
As far as the story goes, no specific plot points were mentioned; however, Kalogridis stated that the original Japanese story will not lose its origins in the adaptation. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a live-action television adaptation for the series. In 2016, it was originally announced to be produced by Skydance Television. After that, news about the adaptation fell into silence. It appears the deal fell apart and now Netflix has come in and claimed the licensing rights to the series.
Sword Art Online has received two television anime adaptations thus far. Sword Art Online: Alicization and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online are slated to air later this year. A movie, Ordinal Scale, also aired in theaters in 2016, acting as a bridge between the second and third seasons. Numerous video games have been produced and the Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet game is slated for release later this month on February 23 for Playstation 4.
