Justin Lin will direct the adaptation of One Punch Man

Since he has unexpectedly terminated his participation in x fast (while filming had already begun), we were wondering which director Justin Lin would switch to. Now we know: he has agreed to take care of Sony’s adaptation of the popular satirical manga. a fist.

The hugely popular title is a comedic action series about a superhero named Saitama who, as the title suggests, can literally take down any enemy with a single punch. The only person who is not impressed with Saitama’s skill is Saitama himself; he is completely tired of fighting and only gets excited when he finally seems to have a challenge.

Created in 2009 by Japanese artist ONE as a webcomic, the story quickly went viral. In 2012 it was published by Shueisha’s company Tonari no Young Jump Next with illustrations by Yusuke Murata and ONE. The series has gone huge with worldwide sales totaling over 30 million copies.

When the English edition published by VIZ Media debuted in the United States in 2015, the first and second volumes entered the New York Times manga bestseller list and were nominated for an Eisner and Harvey Award. Since then, the popularity of a fist spawned a critically acclaimed anime series, as well as games across various platforms. PoisonJeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg are working on the script.

Sony has plans for an adaptation at least for 2020, with Ari and Avi Arad as producers. Recruiting Lin should give him a little more power behind his production punch, but the bigger question that remains is whether a live-action version can offer outlandish world justice.