Story details have leaked for Lionsgate’s live-action Naruto movie, courtesy of scooper Daniel Richtman.
Destin Daniel Cretton, who just delivered the biggest domestic movie ever with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, writes and directs.
Per Richtman, the first movie adapts the manga’s opening arc, and they’re even considering calling it Naruto: Mission to the Land of Waves.
Lionsgate hasn’t confirmed any of it, so the details below stay in the rumor column for now.
Team 7 Stays 12 Years Old
Richtman says the characters are 12 to 13 years old, just like in the original.
That lines up with the second casting call that went out for a younger Team 7. July’s first breakdowns sought actors to play the trio at 16, which had fans bracing for a Shippuden-era movie.
The adaptation is described as very faithful to the source material, though not 100 percent accurate, with some changes.
One of them: Naruto is a bit of a ninja history nerd. “It’s not as bad as it sounds!” Richtman adds.
The love triangle also gets flipped. Naruto is not in love with Sakura, but Sasuke is. In the manga it runs the other way, with Naruto chasing Sakura while Sakura chases Sasuke.
Sakura Already Has Her Powers
Sakura is a much stronger character this time around and already has her powers. In the manga, she doesn’t come into her strength until training under Tsunade years later.
Her family gets a rewrite, too. Sakura comes from a wealthy family, her father died during the Nine-Tails’ attack on the village, and her mother is a rich snob, per Richtman.
Only Certain Bloodlines Can Hold The Nine-Tails
The big difference, per Richtman: being a Jinchuriki, a person with a tailed beast sealed inside them, is determined by bloodline. Only certain people can carry one.
The movie uses that rule to explain why the fox was sealed inside Naruto as a baby. He inherited his mother’s special bloodline, and with her dying, sealing the Nine-Tails inside someone was the only way to stop it. Naruto was the only one they could use.
Manga readers will recognize the idea. Every Nine-Tails host in the original came from the Uzumaki clan, so the movie is turning that pattern into a hard rule.
Cameras Roll In Early 2027
Casting is underway. Charles Melton is on board as Kakashi Hatake, and the worldwide search for Team 7 kicked off in July with creator Masashi Kishimoto’s blessing.
The movie shoots in the first half of 2027, which is why Sony is waiting on Cretton for Spider-Man 5.
The project reads very differently than it did two years ago. At Comic-Con 2024, CBN exclusively reported insiders called the movie a complete disaster and compared it to Dragonball Evolution, saying the people developing it didn’t care about the source material.
A faithful adaptation, 12-year-old ninjas, and an arc-accurate title point the other way.
It’s also Richtman’s second live-action manga reveal in two days. On Friday, he said Sony is developing a Kaiju No. 8 adaptation. He also previously revealed the new Star Wars movie info and leaked Exorcist: Martyrs plot.
