First Look at Evangelion Creator’s Shin Kamen Rider Revealed

New details and the first images and video from Shin Kamen Rider have been revealed.

A first look at the movie's new costume and motorcycle were revealed via two new teaser trailers posted to the official Toei YouTube account, and the first images and casting details were announced later via the movie's official Twitter. Sousuke Ikematsu, who previously appeared alongside Tom Cruise in 2003's The Last Samurai and also starred in the Japanese live-action adaptations of Death Note, will play the rebooted version of Takeshi Hongo, the first man to transform into the masked warrior known as Kamen Rider. Minami Hamabe will play the role of Ruriko Midorikawa, the daughter of the scientist who helped Hongo escape from the vile experiment that transformed him into a cyborg. The new movie will be directed by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno, whose previously directed the 2016 Godzilla reboot, Shin Godzilla.

The new Kamen Rider 1 costume is a modernized take on the one worn by Hiroshi Fujioka in the original Kamen Rider series from 1971. Fujioka, who classic gamers may also recognize as the actor who portrayed the character of Segata Sanshiro in the commercials for the Sega Saturn video game system, has reprised the role of Hongo on several occasions, most notably the 2016 movie Kamen Rider 1, which saw the original Kamen Rider teaming up with his then modern incarnation from the TV series Kamen Rider Ghost.

This is the second time that the original Kamen Rider has been rebooted, with the first being 2001's Kamen Rider The First. The movie starred Masaya Kikawada as Hongo and was directed by Takao Nagaishi, who directed several of the Kamen Rider sequel series that were released during the franchise's Heisei-era revival. The reboot was commercially successful and was followed up with a sequel, 2007's Kamen Rider The Next.

Shin Kamen Rider will be Hideaki Anno's first directorial work since finishing production on Evangelion 3.0 + 1.01: Thrice Upon a Time, the critically acclaimed conclusion to the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise he created. The final chapter in the series had the best box-office performance out of any of the movies in the franchise, and is the highest-grossing movie in Japan for 2021 so far. It similarly broke viewership records on Amazon Prime Video when it made its international debut on the streaming service this August. Following the end of the movie's theatrical run in Japan, Anno revealed that he wants to make several more live-action movies before his possible return to the medium of animation. "Because I can do a lot of things that I can't do with animation, that's why I'm really looking forward to it. I want to do things that are only possible in live-action," Anno said.

Shin Kamen Rider is currently scheduled to premiere in Japan sometime in 2023.

Source: YouTube, Twitter