Fullmetal Alchemist – Picture: Warner Bros. Japan
Bad news for Fullmetal Alchemist fans as we’ve gotten word very close to the removal date that the 2017 live-action movie which carries Netflix Original branding is set to leave Netflix globally on January 27th, 2022.
First released in Japan on December 1st, 2017, the movie eventually came to Netflix complete with Netflix Original branding on February 19th, 2018. Now, having streamed on Netflix for almost four years, the movie is scheduled to expire on January 27th with your last day to watch being January 26th (this is very short notice – apologies!).
The movie is a co-production between Square Enix and Warner Brothers Japan who chose to sell the movie to Netflix. The movie came with both the original Japanese audio as well as English dubs including Vic Mignogna, Aaron Dismuke, and Caitlin Glass reprising their roles as Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, and Winry Rockbell from the anime series.
The 2017 flick sets to faithfully adapt the manga by telling the story of “Two alchemist brothers go on a quest for the Philosopher’s Stone after an attempt to revive their dead mother goes horribly wrong.”
Reviews weren’t kind to Fullmetal Alchemist back in 2017 with it carrying a 5.2 on IMDb and an equally unimpressive 48 on Metacritic.
IGN was amongst the most forgiving of the reviewers saying “there are flaws galore in this live-action movie version, you get a sense that the director has a real love for the original source material” adding “it’s worth a watch.”
Unlike most Netflix removals where we get around a month of notice, we’ve only had a few days where a removal date has been showing on the Fullmetal Alchemist movie. This is a strange occurrence that could indicate Netflix had intended to renew the movie but efforts have fallen through.
It’s been a rough start to 2022 for Fullmetal Alchemist fans. Both the flagship anime series and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood departed the service in January 2022. Rights for the anime come and go, however, so it may not be that we see the show removed forever.
Brotherhood can now only be found on Netflix Japan while the first season of Fullmetal Alchemist can still be found in France, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Where will Fullmetal Alchemist live-action movie stream next?
Given the Warner Brothers Japan connection, our best guess would be HBO Max but watch this space.
Did you catch the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie on Netflix? Let us know down below.