Mega Man (known as Rockman[a] in Japan) is a Japanese science fiction video game franchise developed and published by Capcom, featuring the protagonist of the same name.

In the fortress, Mega Man fights new bosses, clones of the game's Robot Masters, and Wily himself, who is usually in a large multi-phase war machine.

Set years in the future, this series follows the story of Mega Man's successor, X, a new, advanced robot that has complete free will over his actions, thoughts and feelings.

[4] Beginning on the PlayStation in 1997, a 3D action game series called Mega Man Legends was created to take advantage of the console's advanced graphics hardware.

The Legends series is set thousands of years in the future, where the world is covered by immense bodies of water, and humanity is extinct.

The story follows Mega Man (Rock) Volnutt, a relic hunter called a "Digger" who scavenges various ruins throughout the world in search of refractor shards that can be mined and traded as currency.

The Legends series was left on a cliffhanger, with only two main games and a spin-off starring mainstay antagonist Tron Bonne before being discontinued.

NetNavis acts as virtual assistants to Operators, such as the protagonist Lan Hikari, an elementary school student and a future hero who uses his Net Navi to help battle computer viruses and other Internet-based threats.

The series follows a boy named Geo Stelar, who lost his father after a space incident, and Omega-Xis, an extraterrestrial EM-wave fugitive arriving on Earth.

The game features a new protagonist, OVER-1 (オーバー ワン Ōbā Wan), a Reploid created by Dr. Light and Dr. Cossack, as he travels confronting villains from the entire Mega Man franchise, who have crossed between dimensions to join forces.

The filmmaking duo of Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman were in final negotiations to write and direct the film for Fox and Chernin Entertainment in July 2017, when Masi Oka joined as a producer.

[16] In October 2018, Capcom officially announced that a live-action film was in development at Fox and Chernin Entertainment, and confirmed the involvement of Joost and Schulman along with Oka.

[20] That October, Capcom announced that Mega Man remained slated for a live-action film adaptation to create further awareness for the brand.

[26] In August, Tomlin said his approach was to explore Mega Man as a real person with a "primal and emotional" story that can be relatable beyond the character's traditional depictions.

[27] In December 2021, Joost and Schulman's production company Supermarché was revealed to be developing the film alongside Chernin Entertainment for Netflix, with the duo's in-house producer Orlee-Rose Strauss also attached.

[31] Various artbooks and source books have been released for many years in Japan, often including conceptual artwork, interviews with production staff, and background information on the storyline and concepts that are not present within the games themselves.

One of the most well-known is the Rockman Perfect Memories sourcebook released in 2002 which first confirmed the presence of an alternate timeline (for Battle Network), as well as exactly where the Legends series fit into the fictional Mega Man universe.

Although these books have for many years been exclusive to Japan, Udon Entertainment has finished translating the Official Complete Works series for the North American market, called "R25".

[37] The most well-known series is produced by Hitoshi Ariga (who went on to provide character designs and artwork for future official Capcom releases, including the Super Famicom game Mega Man and Bass).

The Megamix portion of the series would eventually be brought to North American shores thanks to Udon Entertainment, also responsible for the localization of the short Mega Man ZX manga by Shin Ogino.

Dreamwave Productions and Brazilian publisher Magnum Press made its own comic books based on the classic game series.

IGN ranked it as the fourth best NES game, behind only Super Mario and Legend of Zelda titles, calling it "virtually flawless" and its gameplay "oft-replicated and never exceeded".

[51] Game Players summarized Mega Man X as "a near-perfect cart with classic gameplay, excellent graphics and sound and tons of hidden items and power-ups".

[52][51][53] Brett Elston of GamesRadar stated, "X was a total reinvention of the series, a perfectly executed update that had fans anticipating its release with a fervor the franchise hadn't seen since the Mega Man 2 and 3 days.

Couple this with a password system that records your level completion, status and weapon accumulation and you'll see we're not looking at a lasting challenge for the experienced player."

[63][64] IGN's Jeremy Dunham speculated that the game's more mature storyline and its inclusion of numerous gameplay extensions over the original Mega Man series helped create a "unique cadre of fans".

[65][52] A spin-off series, Mega Man Zero, began in 2002 on the Game Boy Advance handheld as a result of the immense popularity of the character Zero.

Review sources both criticized and praised the high difficulty level of the game and remarked that they were similar in nature to earlier installments in the Mega Man series.

[69] Nintendo Power listed Mega Man as their fourth favourite hero, citing his ability to steal weapons from downed Robot Masters.

[75] He was included in GameSpot's "All Time Greatest Video Game Hero" contest and reached the "Elite Eight" round before losing to Mario.