While many fans of the Yakuza series were hoping for some Kiryu hijinks in the upcoming Like a Dragon: Yakuza live-action Amazon series, the show will take a more serious path. Not many of the strange substories found in the games will appear in the series, according to Kiryu’s actor Ryoma Takeuchi.
“We don’t have that much in this iteration,” Takeuchi said. “I think we’re digging into the human emotions and the emotional elements of the characters of this iteration. In a positive way, we’re departing from the game at the end of the day; it all comes together.”
The show’s executive producer Erik Barmack also gave his thoughts during a recent interview with The Gamer.
“As this series is an origin story, we wanted to make sure fans were emotionally connected to these characters. It’s a balance that has to be found between the world that is so quirky and these characters, which need to feel real to everybody who is watching the series.”
The series was announced in June and promises to be faithful to the game series as Masayoshi Yokoyama, the studio head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, is serving as executive producer.
The Yakuza game series began in 2005 with Yakuza for the PlayStation 2. The most recent game in the franchise, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, was released in January 2024 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Like a Dragon: Yakuza will air on Amazon Prime Video, with the first three episodes airing on October 25 and the final three on November 1.