Crazy Taxi Is Getting a Live-Action Movie and Sonic Is Racing Back to Animation

Netflix and SEGA are expanding their relationship with a live-action Crazy Taxi comedy and a new Sonic animated series, while Streets of Rage and The Legend of Zelda are also making their way toward the screen.

If you grew up with a Dreamcast controller in your hands, yelling at passengers while The Offspring blasted through your television speakers, this is one of those headlines that sounds slightly unreal.

Crazy Taxi is officially getting a live-action movie.

Netflix and SEGA announced the project on September 14 as part of a broader multi-title collaboration covering several SEGA properties. Alongside the Crazy Taxi movie, Netflix is developing a new animated Sonic the Hedgehog series and a live-action adaptation of RGG Studio’s upcoming STRANGER THAN HEAVEN.

For retro fans, though, Crazy Taxi is the fascinating one.

A game built around picking up passengers, driving like traffic laws were merely polite suggestions, launching a yellow cab off ramps and desperately chasing one more fare before the timer hits zero is now supposed to become a live-action comedy.

And strangely enough, the timing might be perfect.

What We Know So Far About the Crazy Taxi Movie

Netflix describes the project as a live-action comedy feature based on SEGA’s long-running arcade driving series. Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, who wrote the 2025 Naked Gun reboot, are writing the film. Neal H. Moritz and Toby Ascher of Original Film will produce alongside SEGA’s Toru Nakahara. Moritz, Ascher and Nakahara have also been involved with the successful Sonic the Hedgehog screen franchise.

That combination gives us at least a rough idea of the direction Netflix and SEGA appear to be pursuing: comedy first, frantic action close behind.

At the time of writing, however, no director, cast, filming date or release date has been announced. Production listings still describe the movie as being in development.

That is important. We have an officially announced movie and confirmed writers and producers, but we are still a long way from knowing what a finished Crazy Taxi film actually looks like.

Crazy Taxi Is Suddenly a Major SEGA Franchise Again

The movie announcement becomes much more interesting when you look at everything else happening around Crazy Taxi.

SEGA already has Crazy Taxi: World Tour scheduled for 2027 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. Original Crazy Taxi creator Kenji Kanno is heading the project, which introduces a story-driven campaign and online multiplayer to the series.

SEGA even held a multiplayer network test earlier this month featuring modes such as Pickup Race and Cops ‘n’ Cabbies.

In other words, this is not simply Hollywood digging through the retro-game attic and finding an old Dreamcast box.

SEGA is actively rebuilding Crazy Taxi as a modern franchise.

For longtime players, that is quite a turnaround.

The original debuted in arcades in 1999 before arriving on Dreamcast, where it became one of the games that helped define SEGA’s final console. The formula was almost absurdly simple: grab a passenger, follow the giant destination arrow and get there as violently and quickly as possible.

But the personality was enormous.

The bright city streets. The reckless shortcuts. The timer. The ridiculous jumps. The passenger shouting from the back seat. The unmistakable punk-rock soundtrack.

Crazy Taxi was one of those games that could communicate exactly what it was about within about 30 seconds of play.

SEGA itself continues to emphasize the game’s combination of open-city driving, extreme speed and rock music when describing the series today.

That spirit matters far more to a movie adaptation than reproducing any particular mission.

A New Sonic Animated Series Is Coming Too

The Netflix deal also brings SEGA’s most famous character back to animation.

A new Sonic the Hedgehog animated series is currently in development under Carlos Stevens and Toru Nakahara. Netflix says the show is being designed for an upper-preschool audience, with Sonic and his friends presented as a heroic team in a comedic, energetic and emotionally grounded series.

That distinguishes it somewhat from Sonic Prime, whose three seasons remain available on Netflix.

There is no announced title, premiere date, episode count or confirmed voice cast yet.

For older Sonic fans, this is also another reminder of how unusually durable the character has become. Sonic has moved through Saturday-morning cartoons, anime-inspired television, CGI series, theatrical films and streaming animation while still retaining a connection to the blue speedster who became the face of the Genesis in 1991.

Extra Life Retro readers already know how deep that connection runs. Sonic Adventure 2, for example, arrived during SEGA’s transition away from console manufacturing and remains one of the defining games of the Dreamcast’s final years.

The new Netflix series may be targeting younger viewers, but that is arguably part of Sonic’s longevity: each generation seems to get its own version.

SEGA’s Old Catalog Is Becoming a Screen Catalog

The larger story may be what SEGA is doing with its history.

The company has spent the last several years reviving older game properties, including Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi and Streets of Rage. SEGA first publicly outlined that legacy-IP initiative in 2023, describing it as an effort to reimagine older franchises for modern audiences.

Now those franchises increasingly extend beyond games.

We have already seen Golden Axe move into animation, and the newly announced Crazy Taxi film joins another particularly interesting project for Genesis-era fans: Streets of Rage.

The Streets of Rage live-action movie is moving forward at Lionsgate with Jeymes Samuel, director of The Harder They Fall, attached to direct. Sonic the Hedgehog writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller are writing the latest screenplay after an earlier draft by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad. Plot details and casting remain unannounced.

For anyone who remembers Axel, Blaze and Adam clearing thugs from neon-lit streets while Yuzo Koshiro’s soundtrack somehow made the Genesis sound like a nightclub, that combination has obvious possibilities.

The challenge will be preserving the rhythm and personality of the games rather than simply producing another generic action movie with a familiar title attached.

And Nintendo Has The Legend of Zelda Coming

SEGA is hardly alone in treating classic gaming franchises as film properties.

Nintendo and Sony Pictures are now deep into development on the live-action The Legend of Zelda, scheduled for worldwide theatrical release on April 30, 2027. Wes Ball is directing, with Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad producing. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will play Link and Bo Bragason will play Zelda.

That project sits at the opposite end of the adaptation spectrum from something like Crazy Taxi.

Zelda already brings decades of fantasy mythology, characters, creatures, kingdoms and storytelling material to the table.

Crazy Taxi brings a yellow cab, a countdown clock and glorious chaos.

Both are products of the same larger shift: video game companies increasingly seem comfortable treating their classic libraries as entertainment properties that can live across multiple formats rather than remaining locked inside the hardware generations where they began.

Why Retro Fans Should Care

There is an obvious nostalgia element here, but the bigger reason to pay attention is cultural permanence.

Twenty years ago, it would have been easy to imagine Crazy Taxi becoming one of those games remembered primarily by people who owned a Dreamcast.

Instead, SEGA is launching a new game in 2027 and developing a Netflix movie around the same franchise.

Streets of Rage disappeared for decades before Streets of Rage 4 revived it in 2020. Now a film is being developed.

Sonic never really left.

And Nintendo is preparing to put The Legend of Zelda, a franchise that began on the Famicom in 1986, into theaters as a live-action fantasy production.

That matters because adaptations create another doorway into old games.

Some kid may discover Crazy Taxi through a Netflix movie in the same way another generation discovered comic characters through movies rather than comic books.

If that eventually sends them backward toward the arcade original or Dreamcast version, retro gaming culture gains another generation of curious players.

Best Way to Play Crazy Taxi Today

For anyone suddenly feeling the urge to pick up passengers again, there are a couple of sensible routes.

The original Crazy Taxi remains available digitally through Xbox and is playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, providing a straightforward modern option without requiring original hardware.

Collectors can still hunt down the Dreamcast release, but there is no particular reason to treat that as the only “correct” way to play. Original discs, working Dreamcast hardware and CRT setups are wonderful if collecting is part of the enjoyment, but they are not necessary just to experience the game.

There is also Crazy Taxi: World Tour arriving in 2027, although pricing has not yet been announced.

For anyone shopping for the original Dreamcast disc, this is also a good moment to follow the same rule we recommend throughout retro collecting: buy because you actually want the game, not because a movie announcement makes you assume prices are about to explode.

What We Still Don’t Know

There are still plenty of unanswered questions surrounding both Netflix projects.

We do not know who will star in Crazy Taxi, whether familiar drivers such as Axel will appear, how directly the story will connect to World Tour, whether the famous licensed soundtrack will play any role, or when production will begin.

The new Sonic animated series has even fewer publicly confirmed details beyond its target audience and creative leadership.

So this is a story to watch rather than one to overhype.

But seeing Crazy Taxi, Sonic, Streets of Rage and The Legend of Zelda all moving through film or television development at roughly the same time says something remarkable about the staying power of classic games.

These were once arcade cabinets, cartridges and Dreamcast discs.

Now Hollywood wants them too.

And if somebody manages to make a Crazy Taxi movie that feels even half as wild as trying to deliver a passenger across town with seven seconds left on the clock, this could be a very entertaining ride.