It’s time to dust off that Hudson Jericho 941 Airsoft Gas Blowback Pistol as it is based on the pistol of choice by Spike Spiegel when the live action version of the science fiction neo-noir anime “Cowboy Bebop” streams on Netflix. John Cho will be playing the role of Spiegel and he is joined by Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine. Netflix released some photos to whet our appetites as we wait for its release.

“Cowboy Bebop” is about a crew of bounty hunters in the year 2071 aboard the ship Bebop chasing criminals across the Solar System. The anime series premiered in 1998 and only 12 episodes were aired in Japan due to its adult-theme content. It has garnered international anime and sci-fi awards and is even considered as one of the best anime TV series of all time.

The live action series was first announced in 2017 by Tomorrow Studios and in the next year, Netflix announced that it will be streaming the series. By 2019, the cast has been selected with Cho, Shakir and Pineda being joined by Alex Hassell as Vicious and Elena Satine as 'Julia. Vicious was Spike's partner in the crime syndicate before they had a falling out while Julia has a romantic connection to both characters.

Production started in 2019 but had a setback of 8 months when Cho suffered a knee injury and was compounded by the Covid-19 epidemic last year.  Part of the production involved Shinichirō Watanabe, the director of the anime series as a creative consultant and that the original show creator, Hajime Yatate,  was interested in writing the episodes and probably did write the most of the 10 episodes for the series, which will run an hour long each.

Other cast members are Geoff Stults as Chalmers, Jet's ex-partner during his detective days, Tamara Tunie as Ana who runs an underground jazz club on Mars who Spike respects like a mother, Mason Alexander Park as Gren, the right hand of Ana and is a Jazz musician at the club, Rachel House as Mao the boss of the "White Tigers" family, and Ann Truong and Hoa Xuande as Shin and Lin the siblings who act as the enforcers for Vicious.

Music from the original series is used in the live action series and will be aired on November 19.

If you are looking for the Hudson Jericho 941 Airsoft Gas Blowback Pistol, it is a rarity nowadays since it was released in 2003 as Hudson got out of the airsoft business in 2009. While some say the Magnum Research Baby Desert Eagle Airsoft CO2 Pistol can be alternative, it is not really the same as the Jericho 941 even if it bears a resemblance and both are made by IWI. Spike’s version has custom grips and frame mounted laser sight. There is Cowboy Bebop custom grip made for the real Jericho 941 and probably can be fitted to the Hudson airsoft version. Jet Black’s pistol is Walther P99 while Faye Valentine is a Glock 30 .45 ACP. The Walther P99 is available from Umarex though there is no GBB version of the Glock 30 but we believe there is a cheapo springer version of it available as a shrink-wrapped toy.

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