Eternals Director Chloe Zhao Launches Prestige Live-Action Manga Studio With Attack on Titan Publisher — Could She Be Manga’s James Gunn?

Chloe Zhao is jumping into the manga-to-live-action game in a big way. The Oscar-winning filmmaker is now the chief creative officer of a new outfit called Kodansha Studios, which is exactly what it sounds like: the studio arm built to turn Kodansha manga into live-action projects with serious resources behind them.

The setup at a glance

• Chloe Zhao: chief creative officer, overseeing the creative direction.
• Nicolas Gonda: president and COO, handling the business side.
• Mission: build 'premium' live-action adaptations by pairing international filmmakers with Japanese manga authors.
• The library: Kodansha is Japan's largest publisher, with decades of heavy hitters like Attack on Titan and Akira ready to mine.

This is a smart bit of industry architecture: bring the creators to the filmmakers instead of the other way around, and use Kodansha's deep catalog as the backbone. If that sounds familiar, it is. The structure mirrors what James Gunn does at DC Studios while Peter Safran keeps the trains running. Zhao focuses on the art, Gonda keeps the engine humming.

Why Zhao?

Beyond the obvious pedigree, Zhao has already taken a big swing at comic book material with Marvel's Eternals. She also flat-out loves manga, and she said the quiet part out loud about wanting to convert that fandom into films that travel globally.

"I grew up reading and drawing manga. I love being a part of the fandoms and I feel a deep sense of belonging with people around the world who share their love for these characters and stories. Kodansha has an unparalleled library of manga and novels cultivated by master storytellers just waiting to be brought to life onscreen. By connecting these brilliant authors with their filmmaker counterparts internationally, we can empower both parties while driving a wave of exceptional storytelling for audiences all over the world."

The bigger picture

Both Zhao and Gunn know this territory: she steered Eternals; he built Guardians of the Galaxy into a trilogy and then relaunched Superman on the big screen earlier this year. So yes, this is a play to make manga (and, let’s be honest, anime-adjacent IP) the next wave Hollywood bets on. The interesting wrinkle here is the direct line between Japanese authors and global filmmakers, which could avoid the usual lost-in-translation problem these projects run into.

When do we see something?

There is no timeline yet for the first Kodansha Studios project. What is clear: real money and real talent are involved. Whether that turns into great movies or just more announcements with cool logos is the part we all have to wait on.