Six weeks after launching a worldwide casting call for its lead roles, the live-action Naruto film at Lionsgate has made its first concrete move behind the camera.
Charles Melton, who recently landed an Emmy nomination for his role in the Netflix series Beef, is in final negotiations for a key role in the live-action Naruto movie set up at Lionsgate, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Melton is said to be playing Kakashi Hatake, the elite ninja mentor figure to the main character and his friends. Lionsgate had no comment on the casting.
Worth stressing: final negotiations mean nothing is signed yet. A deal can still fall apart.
Recognizable by his silver hair, face mask, and covered left eye, Kakashi is among the most popular figures in Masashi Kishimoto's manga and its long-running anime adaptation. In the manga, Kakashi Hatake is a legendary ninja and the mentor of Team 7, which consists of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno. The character has spent years near the top of fan rankings, and any casting for the role was always going to generate immediate scrutiny.
Naruto, written by Kishimoto and published by Shueisha, had an original run from 1999 to 2014 and printed more than 250 million copies, making it one of the most popular media properties in the world. The story was serialized in Japan's popular Weekly Shonen Jump and later spawned animated series that ran for years on Cartoon Network and Disney XD.
For Melton, the role would mark a significant pivot. Melton broke out as a star on the long-running CW series Riverdale, where he played Reggie Mantle. He received two Emmy nominations — Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor — for producing and co-starring in the second season of Beef. His profile has been climbing steadily, and the Naruto talks land at exactly the moment his name is circulating at the highest levels of franchise filmmaking.
That brings in the other thread fans have been pulling on all week. An insider account reported on X that Melton had "reportedly passed on the role of Beast in the X-MEN reboot film," noting the full cast was initially expected to be announced at D23, though citing industry insider Daniel Richtman, who later clarified the rumor had been shared privately and was never fully confirmed.
Richtman clarified he had only discussed the information privately because it was not fully verified, writing, "Okay, I understand now how the Melton thing got out. But there's a reason I haven't said it publicly and only in private. It's not 100%." So the Beast narrative is still unverified — but the Naruto talks are real, and the timing has done nothing to quiet the speculation.
The fit for Kakashi, at least, isn't hard to see. Melton's casting may make sense given his substantial interest in anime and manga, along with a set of martial arts skills that include a second-degree black belt in taekwondo and participation in the Junior Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
Destin Daniel Cretton, who is currently in theaters with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, is set to direct the movie based on Kishimoto's manga series.
Cretton's credits also include the Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day has earned roughly $2 billion at the global box office, making it one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Cretton is also writing the script. Lionsgate landing him for Naruto immediately after that run signals the studio is treating this as a tentpole, not a passion project handed to a journeyman.
Avi Arad, Ari Arad, and Emmy Yu are producing for Arad Productions alongside Jeremy Latcham, while Cretton is producing with Jeyun Munford through his company, Hisako.
Cretton will direct and write the film in collaboration with Kishimoto, suggesting the original creator will play an active role in production. When the global casting call launched in July, Kishimoto offered a statement through the official franchise site: "Right now, miracles are happening to me, one after another. My work, Naruto, is truly, truly becoming a Hollywood movie! And an even greater miracle is that the film will be directed by the one and only Destin Daniel Cretton. I still cannot believe it!"
The search for the leads of Team 7 is still very much open. The official Naruto franchise website announced on July 10 that the live-action film project had begun a global casting search for the main characters Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, with casting for other characters to follow later.
Reports confirm Cretton is looking for a "young actor" to play Naruto, with the 35-year-old Melton in the mentor role opposite a team of characters written as 12-year-olds.
The open call is targeting Asian male talent worldwide, is being cast with involvement from the production team behind Stranger Things and Star Wars: Starfighter, and is looking specifically for teen boys to play Naruto. It is a paid opportunity, and no prior acting experience is required, with commitment expected from January through August 2027.
Anyone interested needs to submit a full name, age, location, and two recent photos, one close-up and one full body, through the official casting channels.
Lionsgate closed the rights to adapt the manga in 2015, with early reports linking director Michael Gracey to the project. More than a decade of development limbo followed. Lionsgate formally announced the live-action Naruto movie in February 2024. Now it has a director fresh off a $2 billion hit, a writer who is the property's original creator, and its first named cast attachment. Production is eyeing a start around February 2027, according to sources.
No release date has been set.
That's the most concrete timeline the project has ever had. For a franchise that spent eleven years in development purgatory, it's a lot.
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