Capcom’s long-running Mega Man franchise is set to blast, slide, and jump its way onto TV screens once again, with the announcement today that animation firm Man Of Action Entertainment has been tapped to develop a new cartoon based on the games.
Created back in 1987, the Mega Man series—currently clocking in at 50-plus games, spread across more than a dozen consoles and handhelds—generally focuses on the titular robot’s quest for peace, utilizing the tried and true peace-generating method of absorbing evil androids’ powers, then using them to blast other evil androids in the face.
Mega Man has a long history of television adaptation; versions of the character last appeared on U.S. TVs back in the 2000s, with the spinoff anime series MegaMan NT Warrior and Mega Man Star Force. A more traditional take on the character showed up in the mid-’90s, when animation company Ruby-Spears produced a two-season syndicated series, Mega Man. That show saw Capcom’s Blue Bomber battle against Protoman, Dr. Wily, and his army of evil Robot Masters, armed with nothing but gumption, a robotic dog, and one of the most relentlessly ear-worm-y theme songs ever written. Before that, a character called Megaman appeared on NBC’s Captain N: The Game Master, although the choice to portray the usually heroic bot as a concussed little person with a pronounced smoker’s rasp has long been considered controversial by fans.
Man Of Action’s previous shows include Cartoon Network’s Ben 10, as well as two of Disney XD’s Marvel adaptations, Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble, both set to return in 2016. Mega Man is expected to air the year after, just in time for the character’s 30th anniversary—provided, of course, that it doesn’t hit any spikes on the way, exploding the whole project into little glowy orbs of light.