Just weeks after abandoning the Fast X director’s chair because of creative differences with star Vin Diesel, Justin Lin is back on track to direct One-Punch Man. Lin is best known for having directed five movies in the Fast and Furious franchise, including F9, which was released in 2021.
One-Punch Man will be a live-action adaptation of a Japanese series based on a story by Japanese artist ONE that debuted as a comic book in the manga/anime sphere back in 2009. Its title derives from the uncanny power of its superhero, Saitama, who can knock out his adversaries with a single punch. The series reportedly racked up more than 30 million sales around the globe. An English-language version was released in the U.S. six years later, published by VIZ Media. It proved an instant hit among American audiences, and appeared for a time of the New York Times list of manga bestsellers.
Lin’s new venture will be produced for Sony Pictures by Avi Arad, who has a number of Spider-Man films to his credit. Lin and Ari Arad are also listed as producers on the film, which may be in production by the end of 2022. Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner are writing the script for One-Man Punch; they had earlier collaborated on the scripts for Jumanji: The Next Level and Venom.
Justin Lin is a Taiwanese-born American director whose films have grossed more than $2.7 billion worldwide as of 2017. He made his first feature, Shopping for Fangs, in 1997, co-directing it with fellow UCLA film school classmate Quentin Lee. The film starred John Cho and is considered a cult classic in the Asian American community.
