Should Mega Man Appear Human in the Netflix Movie?

Shortly before the site went on hiatus, we saw a rumor surrounding the movie going to Netflix, after its previous distributor, Fox, was bought up by Disney. More recently, this was apparently confirmed.

Guess they weren’t interested in having a Marvel vs. Capcom Cinematic Universe.

Prior to this news dropping, however — in fact, before the initial story of it moving to Netflix, even — a thought had occurred to me. We know that the movie is going to be live action, unless they pull some sort of last-minute swerve on us. But even though that’s going to be the case, there’s bound to be lots of computer-generated (or CG, if you prefer) imagery throughout. Not just special effects, but probably characters, too.

Assuming this is based on the Classic series, then it seems likely that a character like Guts Man will be fully CG. Guys like Dr. Light and Dr. Wily? They’ll probably have cast actual actors to perform the roles.

But what about the star of the show, Mega Man himself?

It’s generally been assumed that the Blue Bomber would be played by a regular human actor. But… should he be?

A human actor would be more realistic, no doubt, and probably indistinguishable from a real human on account of being played by one. But what if they didn’t go in that direction? What if they just stuck to a version of the same basic Mega Man design we all know and love, albeit with more realistic detailing?

Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Recent examples of this, such as Detective Pikachu, have won over fans with their blending of real-world and fictional designs. Perhaps more notably, Sonic the Hedgehog in particular managed to narrowly avert complete disaster by eschewing the almost universally reviled (save for those who liked it ironically) “realistic” design for something more in line with the game, even going so far as to employ ascended fan artist Tyson Hesse (who has worked with Archie, IDW, and even SEGA themselves on various officially-licensed productions) to create the redesign. As a result, the movie was a hit, and we’re getting a sequel this year which brings in Tails, Knuckles, and an even edgier eggier Robotnik.

Going back to Mega Man, I got to thinking about it, and while many of us have always assumed that without his blue helmet and armor, he looks just like any regular 10-year old human boy… is there necessarily anything to support that?

In the early ’90s, Capcom showed us the origin of Mega Man in-game twice, and upon a second glance, maybe Rock isn’t that human looking…

Mega Man 4, Mega Man Soccer

In Mega Man 4, we see Rock prior to his transformation into Mega Man. Here, the cuts for his joints are very prevalent, appearing at his neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees. In addition, his lower legs seem to be a different hue than the rest of his flesh-colored “skin”.

The version shown in Mega Man Soccer is similar, but changes things up a bit as well. There are fewer cut joints, and while those around his torso might have seemed indicative of a tank top (to pair with his shorts, one might presume, making sense of the more limited color palette of the NES), their absence here seems to indicate that Rock was wearing little more than shorts when he was turned into Mega Man. He does retain the ones at his knees and ankles, though, as they more closely resemble the very same boots he wears when transformed.

In truth, those boots have long been the biggest tell that something is different about Rock across various licensed media over the years:

Ruby-Spears, Comic Bom-Bom, Archie

Of course, while it would be curious if all the ancillary media did it without some sort of direction from Capcom, that’s not the case. Other material from Capcom has utilized the boots as well:

Rockman Complete Works, Mega Man Powered Up

That isn’t universally constant, however, as the following pieces of art from Rockman Complete Works shows Rock without those boots:

Rockman Complete Works

But while these ignore the boots that make Rock stand out as something other than human, they nevertheless included other tells here. Specifically, there are lines around their knees and elbow joints which give them away as mechanical.

Which makes a certain amount of sense. As we’ve seen recently, it would appear that Reploids from the Mega Man X series have those very same lines across their robotic skin and joints, too:

Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2

This would carry forward into Mega Man X DiVE, as well:

Mega Man X DiVE (Yes, all of the samples of this are women. I’m just working with the evidence I’ve got.)

After all, why should robots from 20XX look more human than the ones capable of human-like thoughts, feelings, and so on from a century later?

But then we come to the piece that blows a pretty big hole in that particular argument. Also from Mega Man X DiVE, we have various forms of Roll, including this one:

Mega Man X DiVE

Not only is she lacking any sort of seams or detail lines, she is also depicted with toes — something no character from beyond the 20XX period in the game is depicted with, barring maybe some animal Reploids who have big, mechanical claws (and no, I’m not counting Ryu or Akuma. They’re clearly 20XX, besides).

But while this might lend credence to an argument for Rock (and of course, Roll) to look like regular humans in live-action, Roll may have another tell, albeit a much subtler one.

Note that at her ankles, she has these mechanical pieces, similar to those on Mega Man’s helmet. With the exception of her earliest art from the original Mega Man game, they’ve been a constant across nearly all her designs up to Mega Man 11, with the exception of the unlockable alternate costumes in Mega Man Powered Up. See for yourself. Perhaps they’re meant to be more than just a part of her various attire, though that doesn’t quite explain the change in Mega Man 11. But even then, some of the designs they had in the development stages had them, and they’re replaced (or covered?) now by black button-like decorations.

Bringing this back around to the subject which ignited this train of thought: At the time this question came to mind, I put the question out on The Mega Man Network’s Twitter, @TheMMNetwork, with a poll. This is how people voted on the matter:

By the look of things, it seems the majority of those who voted are with me on this one.

All this is to say that as Chernin develops their live-action movie for Netflix, maybe they can incorporate a version of Mega Man that looks a little less like you and I, but more like himself. Maybe he doesn’t need to look like a real human. Maybe, historically speaking, he shouldn’t.

Of course, all this assumes that their “Mega Man” movie will hew in any way close to the original games in the first place. For all we know, we’re going to have to add another blue helmet to the pantheon of Mega Men, right there next to Fully Charged‘s. And maybe that one would look right with a regular actor filling those blue shoes.

Thanks for reading!

Pretty much all Mega Man artwork except the banner via Mega Man Knowledge Base.