Noah Centineo Poised to Suit Up for Live-Action Gundam Alongside Sydney Sweeney

Noah Centineo is building a franchise starter pack. He is already throwing fireballs as Ken in Street Fighter and circling a John Rambo prequel. Now he is close to boarding the live-action Gundam movie too. Big robots, bigger feelings.

The pitch

This take on Gundam is leaning into a star-crossed-soldiers angle: two fighters from opposing sides who end up catching feelings in the middle of a war. Think classic doomed romance, except the breakups involve mobile suits leveling city blocks. Sydney Sweeney is locked as one of the leads. Centineo is in talks to be the other half of that duo.

Who is making it

Jim Mickle, the showrunner behind Sweet Tooth, is writing and directing. Sweeney has reportedly been hands-on with casting, which tracks if the whole movie lives or dies on the chemistry between two people inside skyscraper-sized mechs.

So what is Gundam, exactly

Gundam started in 1979 as an anime and is set in the Universal Century timeline. Earth gets overcrowded, humanity builds space colonies, and some of those colonies want independence. Peace talks fail, so the argument escalates to giant, weaponized robots punching, blasting, and generally scrapping it out. It has since blown up into nearly five decades of anime series, movies, and manga. A proper live-action feature has been the white whale for years.

Development history (the behind-the-scenes wrinkle)

This version has been quietly in the works since 2018. Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) was originally set to direct, but Mickle took over the project in 2024. If it actually shoots, it will be one of the rare times a long-gestating Gundam film makes it out of the hangar.

• Title: Live-action Gundam feature (Universal Century setting)
• Leads: Sydney Sweeney; Noah Centineo in talks
• Writer/Director: Jim Mickle (Sweet Tooth)
• Premise: Two soldiers on opposite sides fall for each other amid a mobile suit war
• Timeline: In development since 2018; Jordan Vogt-Roberts originally attached; Mickle took over in 2024
• Why it matters: Nearly 50 years of Gundam with tons of anime and manga; live-action has been elusive
• Centineo watch: Also playing Ken in Street Fighter (in theaters October 26, 2026) and attached to a John Rambo prequel

What is next

Centineo is not officially locked yet, but it sounds close. In the meantime, you will see him go a few rounds in Street Fighter on October 26, 2026. If this Gundam deal closes, expect a lot of training montages and a whole lot of stop-staring-at-each-other-and-get-in-the-robot energy.