This CG animation will be more faithful to the games than the recent live-action film.
It’s been a big year for Monster Hunter – not only has the franchise received a live-action movie and Nintendo Switch spin-off game Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, but now the series will be getting an animated feature film.
Much like Capcom’s fellow Netflix project Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild will use a stunning CG anime art style to bring the multi-million selling series to life.
After initially being announced in 2018 and missing its planned 2019 release date, the action RPG adaptation is finally set to be released, with a rather impressive trailer and poster to prove it.
So get your oversized swords ready – here’s everything you need to know about Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild.
Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild release date
Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild will be released on Netflix worldwide on Thursday 12th August 2021.
The release date was revealed along with the film’s trailer, which sparked quite a monstrous amount of buzz on social media.
The animated film was first announced in 2018 following the unprecedented success of Monster Hunter: World, and was initially scheduled for 2019 – however, it is unknown why the film’s release date was then pushed back by two years.
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Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild plot
Monster Hunter is set in a world where nature is balanced by the coexistence of humans and giant monsters – so naturally, that balance is set to be disrupted in order to kick off this film.
The inciting incident in question is an Elder Dragon’s attack on an isolated village, which prompts young protagonist Aiden to set out on a quest to save his endangered village. He then meets Julius, a member of the Hunter’s Guild, an association dedicated to proecting citizens and the ecosystem from threats – including the Elder Dragon, which of course is said to be the most powerful of all the monsters.
Together with Julius, Aiden will recruit an elite team of veteran monster hunters – some human, others bipedal cat-people – and take on the dragon once and for all.
It seems there’ll likely be a message about preserving the balance between man and nature also – but most importantly, there’ll be plenty of large, oversized swords hitting plenty of large, oversized monsters.
The film will serve as a prequel to the recent video games, as Aiden appeared as an Ace Cadet in Monster Hunter 4 and popped up again in Monster Hunter: World.
Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild trailer
The trailer landed with a monstrous thud in July 2021 – showcasing some stunning animation and teasing some rather impressive fight scenes:
Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild voice cast
Plucky villager Aiden will be portrayed by Dante Basco, who will be best known as Lost Boys leader Rufio in Steven Spielberg’s Hook but has since carved out a successful voice acting career, most notably voicing Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and the title character in American Dragon: Jake Long.
Basco will be joined by Erica Lindbeck, who portrayed Black Cat in the 2018 Spider-Man videogame and has provided the voice of Barbie since 2015. She will be playing a character called Lea.
Brando Eaton – best known for playing Jonah Mitchell in Dexter – will be voicing Hunter’s Guild member Julius, while Mayans M.C. star Karen Strassman will portray Genova, after previously voicing Annette in another Capcom project Resident Evil 2.
Stephen Kramer Glickman (Big Time Rush), Brian Beacock (Digimon Tamers) and Katie Leigh (Muppet Babies) round out the cast.
Monster Hunter: Legends of the Guild streams on Netflix from Thursday 12th August. Take a look at our guides to the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix.
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