My Hero Academia Creator Kōhei Horikoshi Won’t Let a Single Line of the Live-Action Script Slide
Nothing escapes Kōhei’s red pen—treatments, outlines, scenes; every step gets notes.
Good news for anyone who gets nervous when Hollywood touches a beloved manga: the My Hero Academia live-action movie has its creator in the room. Not just consulting-from-afar in the room — actually in the mix on the story.
Horikoshi isn't just blessing it — he's shaping it
Screenwriter Jason Fuchs told EW that Kohei Horikoshi is hands-on with the script. As in, nothing moves forward without the mangaka weighing in. That's rare at this scale and, frankly, encouraging.
"There's no treatment, there's no outline, there's no scenes, there's no nothing that Kohei doesn't give notes on, react to with thumbs up, thumbs down," Fuchs said. He added that Horikoshi is "very involved," and that the collaboration makes him confident fans will feel good about the result.
If you've watched enough page-to-screen adaptations, you know that level of creator oversight can be the difference between a respectful translation and a glossy brand exercise. This sounds like the former.
Quick refresher: what My Hero Academia actually is
Set in a world where almost everyone is born with a superpower (Quirk), My Hero Academia follows Izuku Midoriya — Deku — one of the unlucky few born without one. After a fateful encounter with the world's top hero, All Might, Deku inherits All Might's power and starts training to control it. He learns it piece by piece at a hero academy, builds a circle of friends and rivals, and attracts enemies who despise All Might and the hero system itself.
As teen superhero stories go, it's a high bar — big heart, escalating stakes, and a main character who earns every inch.
Who's writing this thing
Jason Fuchs is scripting the film. On top of that, he's the co-creator and co-showrunner of It: Welcome to Derry, the prequel series to the recent It movies. So he's juggling a mega-popular horror prequel while adapting one of the biggest manga on the planet. No pressure.
Where things stand right now
- Kohei Horikoshi is directly involved in crafting the movie's story and gives feedback on everything from outlines to scenes.
- Jason Fuchs is writing the script and says Horikoshi's involvement gives him confidence fans will be happy.
- No release date yet for the live-action film.
- The final season of the My Hero Academia anime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Bottom line: if you've been bracing for the worst, this is a legitimately promising sign. When the person who built the world is co-driving the adaptation, the odds of getting the spirit right go up fast.