The live-action Gundam film, starring Sydney Sweeney and Noah Centineo in the lead is finally marching ahead as production has officially begun in Queensland, Australia.

Directed by Jim Mickle (Sweet Tooth, Cold in July), the film from Netflix and Legendary also stars Shioli Kutsuna, Michael Mando, Gemma Chua-Tran, Jackson White, Nonso Anozie, Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton, Oleksandr Rudynskyi, Ida Brooke and Jason Isaacs.

While character details are currently under wraps, the film follows rival mech pilots fighting on opposite sides of decades-long war between Earth and its space former colonies. "As shifting allegiances and a growing threat set them on a collision course for one another," reads an early description of the film, "they’re pulled into a high-stakes race across the stars that could define the fate of humanity. With awe-inspiring battles, intimate human emotion, and an epic cinematic scale, this is Gundam like it’s been seen before."

Yoshiyuki Tomino was the first to adapt the Japanese military science fiction media franchise, Gundam, into a TV series titled Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979. With a wide variety of adaptations across animated feature films, novels, manga, toys, models and video games, the popularity of Gundam grew during the 1980s. 

Set in Universal Century, a distant future, the original series revolves around human colonies fighting in space for independence from Earth. Giant robots called Mobile Suits are used as weaponry for combat. When Legendary announced the Gundam film first in 2021, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, director of Kong: Skull Island, was attached to direct.

Gundam is backed by Legendary Pictures in partnership with Bandi Namco Filmworks, that started the sci-fi sub genre known as 'mecha', which focusses on giant fighting robots. Mickle is also backing with his partner Linda Moran through their company Nightshade, alongside Cale Boyter, Ali Mendes, Sweeney, Centineo, and Enzo Marc. Matthew Jenkins, Makoto Asanuma, and Naohiro Ogata serve as executive producers.