‘Blue Eye Samurai’ producers in “panic mode” about season two
There’s no doubt that Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai is one of the best animated shows that’s been released recently.
An adult animation, created and written by the married team Amber Noizumi and Michael Green alongside director and producer Jane Wu, Blue Eye Samurai is set during Japan’s 17th-century Edo period and follows the story of Mizu, a half-white, half-Japanese female warrior. During the country’s isolationist period, she seeks vengeance on four white men, one of whom is her father.
Starring Maya Erskine, George Takei, Kenneth Branagh, Randall Park and more, the first season’s eight episodes were a hit on Netflix, with the original story, characters and attention to detail celebrated by audiences. Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin called the show a “terrific” watch.
It has since been revealed that the show will be returning for a second season, but during a new FYC screening with Collider at Netflix’s headquarters, with Noizumi, Green, Wu and Myron Nettinga, some disappointing truths about the hotly anticipated second instalment were revealed.
Wu explained that the producers are in “panic mode” over the second series at the minute, saying: “We’re in panic mode right now because we still have a schedule and we still have a budget, and we’re trying to get all that to talk to each other. We’re in the beginnings of production and getting it started, and everything else is in the planning stages.”
It took three and a half years from starting work on the show to getting it released on Netflix, with the length of the episodes meaning it takes much longer to finish than other animated shows. Accordingly, the next chapter in Blue Eye Samurai isn’t expected for years yet, with the producers saying that they have the “fondest hope” that it returns in 2026, despite that they’d “love to have it out as soon as possible,” shows like it take a lot of time and money, they maintain.
It’s not just that disappointing news, either. As Netflix often does when renewing shows, Blue Eye Samurai season two will be shorter than the first outing. While the first season had eight episodes ranging from 35 to 65 minutes, the second will have only six episodes, all around the 44-minute mark.
Despite the second season of Blue Eye Samurai taking a long time to arrive, and the fact it will be much shorter than the debut outing, there can be no doubt that it will be one of the most-watched shows on the streaming site whenever it does materialise.