July 29, 2025
Inside the Wu-Tang anime series that, unfortunately, never came to life.
The Wu-Tang Clan has carved out a legacy unlike any other rap group before or after them. Blending their music with a signature nod to kung fu culture, an anime series would seem like a natural extension of their brand. But, despite their interest in making it happen, the project never came to fruition, a creator recently revealed.
Laurence Guinness, former head of the now-defunct U.K.-based Manga Entertainment, which helped popularize anime in the UK, recently appeared on The Anime Business podcast, where he reflected on the project he was most proud of that never came to life. It turns out, an anime series featuring the Wu-Tang Clan battling evil villains was canned, and it’s still something Guinness hasn’t gotten over.
“The project I was proudest of, an OVA series I pitched and conceived to Wu-Tang Clan, got far down the line with a production agreement with them that they’d signed off, we had financing in place,” he shared.
With so many members in the hip-hop collective, Manga needed approval from every living member, a challenge that ultimately stalled the project.
“There were a few members of the band that hadn’t [signed off], and that’s what stalled the whole thing,” Guinness explained. “But when I pitched it to Chris Blackwell (Manga Entertainment’s founder) — I’ll never forget — I sat in front of him, I said, ‘This is the series, it’s called The Imperial Warrior, it’s about a gang of Black musical artists from Brooklyn who challenge the forces of evil in the world through music and their martial arts skills.”
He continued to gush about how great the series would’ve been for anime and hip-hop fans.
“And it was a great series, fantastic — as you would expect — soundtrack, but with these incredible characters…in anime form,” Guinness said. “It would’ve been revolutionary. That was the project I was proudest of that never happened.”
Meanwhile, Wu-Tang continues to stay active while pushing the culture forward. Fresh off the heels of wrapping their Final Chamber Tour, their single-copy album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, remains on loan to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, as part of the “Namedropping” exhibition, where a select few can attend exclusive public listening sessions.
The group also has a new video game in the works, Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver, featuring a customizable character on a mission to reunite the group’s members. The game will feature a soundtrack produced by Just Blaze and will be released alongside Angel of Dust, a horror film directed by RZA and produced by Ghostface Killah.
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