Amazon Prime Video has announced a reboot of the popular Japanese competition show “Takeshi’s Castle”, which has also enjoyed great popularity in Germany for a long time. The new edition should appear on the streaming service as early as 2023.
If you were zapping through TV on any given afternoon around the year 2000, you’re likely to have come across Takeshi’s Castle at some point. At the turn of the millennium, the Japanese game show ran up and down on the channel DSF (today: Sport 1), later RTL 2, Comedy Central, and NITRO showed the series. In 2014 and 2017, the two offshoots “Takeshi’s Castle Thailand” and “Takeshi’s Castle Indonesia” was also launched, which are run by Comedy Central in this country. As several US media are now reporting, there will soon be more supplies: Amazon Prime Video is producing a Japanese reboot of Takeshi’s Castle, which is slated for a 2023 release on the streaming service.
Commenting on the decision, Takayuki Hayakawa, Chief of Japanese Original Productions at Prime Video, said: “This iconic Japanese series has captivated people around the world, breaking down language and cultural barriers in the process. We hope clients of all ages will enjoy this program. There will be many new tricks of a larger dimension.” It remains to be seen what this “bigger dimension” will look like. Details about the reboot have not yet been announced, apart from the approximate start time.
This is Takeshi’s Castle
In “Takeshi’s Castle”, around 100 participants embark on a merciless obstacle course in each episode, which is intended to prevent them from conquering the eponymous castle with mass battles, bizarre sumo competitions, confusing labyrinths, and other unusual obstacles. The idea came from director, actor, and comedian Takeshi Kitano (“Battle Royale”), who wanted to bring the video game “Super Mario Bros.” to reality and hosted the show.
Although “Takeshi’s Castle” ran in Japan from 1986 to 1989, it only celebrated its TV premiere in Germany ten years later. The original episodes were drastically shortened and provided with a German commentary. The result: “Takeshi’s Castle” became a cult hit (as in many other countries around the world), which had a decisive influence on a number of subsequent game shows.
