Titus Welliver Officially Joins 'Unfilmable' DC Crime Series

Titus Welliver is officially helping lead the cast of an "unfilmable" DC Comics adaptation. It might even end up being his next best role of the decade.

Per Deadline, Bosch star Titus Welliver joined Weeds' Justin Kirk and Scott Pilgrim star Alison Pill in signing on for the hotly anticipated animation adaptation of Get Jiro. The upcoming series will also star Chicago Med's Brian Tee and will translate Anthony Bourdain, Joel Rose, and Langdon Foss' cult classic comic book of the same name, ensuring a whole new generation of audiences get a chance to discover Get Jiro for themselves.

What Is Get Jiro About — And Why Are Fans So Excited About the Animated Series?

Written by the late, great Anthony Bourdain alongside Joel Rose with art by Langdon Foss, Get Jiro takes place in a not-so-distant future in which the streets of Los Angeles are often reduced to a bloodbath, all in the name of good eats. The series revolves around Jiro, an incredibly capable and lethal sushi chef who is caught in the middle of an ongoing war between the Internationalist fusion chefs and those of the all-organic, vegetarian, macrobiotic-obsessed Vertical Farm.

Get Jiro was an absolute hit with critics and readers upon its release, although the original comic somehow flew under the radar of many at the time. Apart from its captivating absurdist story, Get Jiro became infamous for its gruesome, over-the-top violence that washed almost every other page of the series in blood and gore.

What Fans Can Expect from the Animated Get Jiro Adaptation

The upcoming animated adaptation of Get Jiro is being developed by Alessandro Tanaka for Warner Bros. Animation, who said of the series, "Bourdain's whole mantra was just food brings us together… and then there's a lot of blood and violence in between [in Get Jiro], but ultimately that's the takeaway... The comic starts where this mysterious Japanese sushi chef (Jiro) lands in Los Angeles, and he starts playing everyone against each other. As the series continues, we see that there's a whole method to his madness, and the entire thing is like him creating a recipe for the grand finale. A lot of food, mayhem and violence happens."

Tanaka also discussed new elements created for the ten-episode animated series, noting that the production "Had to expand on what was already there, which includes creating a couple of new characters, some extra storylines." Tanaka continued, "There's one [new] villain, and we'll just refer to him as the Cannibal, that hopefully people will enjoy, but mostly it was about taking the characters that were already there and just deepening them and finding more about them."

Perhaps most importantly, Tanaka promised that Get Jiro will embrace its roots and those of the original creators, particularly Bourdain himself. "There was pressure going in because [Bourdain's] presence looms very strongly over this, but I think he would be very happy with what we did, and I think we did right by him," Tanaka added.

Get Jiro's premise seemed "unfilmable" due to its heightened, grotesque, and ultra-violent food-culture satire, which was almost impossible to get right with a live-action adaptation. However, turning it into an animated series makes perfect sense, as it will be able to defy all the regular physics rules live-action films must abide by.

Get Jiro doesn't have a release date yet.