Death Note Poster Gives Us Our First Look At Ryuk The Shinigami

Netflix certainly has their fingers in a lot of interesting pots. The past few years has seen them absolutely dominate the television series front. With original series like House of Cards, and Marvel productions like Luke Cage, they’ve proven that they can bring as riveting of dramas to the small screen as both standard networks and pay cable channels. With that territory now claimed, and their flag in the ground, they’ve also been hard at work at feature films.

Thus far, the success on that one has been less than their TV stuff, with films like War Machine having more of a mixed reception than they’d hope for. What’s more, they’re still working at getting their work noticed by the Oscars. But don’t think that Netflix is only interested in the awards, they’re also interested in more niche genre films like the upcoming Death Note.



Based on the manga of the same name, Death Note follows the events that take place after a high schooler finds a notebook that allows him to kill anyone just by writing their name in it. However, apart from the stellar plot, it’s perhaps best known visually for the character Ryuk, a shinigami (kind of alike a grim reaper) who loves apples. In the Japanese live-action films, the character is achieved using very shoddy CG effects, and we had to wonder how they’d approach the character going into this film.

The live-action Japanese version.

The live-action Japanese version.

Well, director Adam Wingard to show off a new poster for the film, and in it we get a first look at Ryuk. Take a look below.

Right off the bat, it’s easy to see they’re taking a very different approach. Rather than create an unworldly creature using CG, it looks like they’re opting to go more for a “man in suit” direction. As you tell from this, it looks very much like the type of effects we would see on the original Alien movies, where you can totally tell it’s a dude in a suit. Not saying this is a bad thing — after all, the character is somewhat human-like — but it’s definitely a choice they went for here that may give them some kudos with fans who prefer a practical look over a CG one.

This approach may also help to give the film more grounding in the real world. While I did appreciate the Japanese live-action films, the CG never meshed well with the live-action elements.

Also a nice touch are the names sprouting around his spikes, which are a reference to his Death Note.

What do you think of this? Let us know in the comments down below!

Death Note hits Netflix on August 25, 2017.

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SOURCE: Adam Wingard (via Twitter)

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