Naruto is one of the best stories ever told, and it possibly has one of the biggest fandoms in the world. Following the ground-breaking success of One Piece live-action, many fans and viewers are curious about what will happen with Naruto live-action, as announced in 2015.
The latest update was that Tasha Huo joined the series as the screenwriter. Although it was initially decided to be released in the film format, due to various circumstances, it will most likely be released in an episode format, just like its rival, One Piece, which managed to break the live-action curse.
1: The duration of the story is way too long for a film
Naruto manga and anime are among the largest in the world, with more than 700+ chapters to adapt. This poses a tremendous challenge, as several cuts would be required to fit it into a movie’s duration.
Even after fleshing out all the parts, there is still way too much source material to adapt; therefore, it cannot be made into a movie and it would most likely be adapted into a season format.
2: A live-action series would be more profitable than the movie
It is better to release it in a season format rather than in a single film to maximize profits. The profit gained through changing the format would be huge, and one such example is the One Piece live-action.
Naruto has a huge fandom, and it makes sense to reap more profits if the opportunity is available; therefore, a live-action series would be a better choice from a business perspective.
3: Naruto Movie Can’t Flesh Out All Its Characters
Naruto features many beloved side characters, and excluding them can prove fatal to the plot’s success. Fitting all the characters into a single movie is impossible and would look too forced.
Even if the plan is to release the story in multiple sequels, it is still a risky bet as there is no guarantee that the live-action curse won’t trap Naruto live-action.
4: The story needs a lot of world-building and is quite vast
The Naruto world is way too large; as we know, the viewer would get overwhelmed with so much information all at once. If it were released in movie format, it would cause the viewer to get tremendously confused.
There are several ninjutsu, clans, their histories, and the origins of many characters; therefore, it needs a lot of buildup. If the team goes ahead with the movie format, everything in the story will be highly rushed and may cause a hindrance to the success of the franchise.
Also Read: After Naruto and One Piece, Another Shonen Manga is Getting its Own Live Action Adaptation
5: Making a movie will require a lot of changes to the plot
If they are trying to compress all of the story in a movie, then it would require way too many changes to the plot, and this could be the reason for its downfall, just like Deathnote live-action, which changed many things from the original story and therefore performed terribly at the box office.
Adjusting the story to a movie length requires significant changes to Masashi Kishimoto’s work and the need to deviate from the source material, which may be a recipe for disaster.
