I have long been a fan of anything related to martial arts; I’m talking tv shows, movies, games, anime, and manga. So when I heard about the new Netflix show, House of Ninjas, I knew that it was right up my alley. Recently I was able to speak with the show’s director and co-writer, Dave Boyle, to learn more about this family of shinobis (ninjas).
House of Ninjas: Director Dave Boyle Interview
When a friend asked director Dave Boyle if he liked ninjas his immediate response was yes! That conversation turned into Boyle writing the show bible for House of Ninjas, a project that was brought to Netflix by writer and actor Kento Kaku.
On working with Kento to bring the show to life: “I just got a call out of the blue, I guess, three years ago from my friend who’d worked at Netflix. He just asked me “Hey, you, like ninjas?” And I was like, Yeah. I mean, who doesn’t like ninjas? And he told me that Kento had brought this project to them, this concept, and they were looking for a take on it…I pitched some ideas for it [and] they decided to have me write the show bible. I did that. And then the next thing I knew, they were moving ahead with it. Now, me directing was still sort of an open question…But then it was Kento, who sort of really pushed for [it]…So yeah, I love the guy.”
Choreographing fight sequences: “I want to talk about my action choreographer, Keiya Tabuchi, who’s just so wonderful..and just a great collaborator. He became involved early on in the show, so while we were sort of working on scripts, we could touch base with him and swap ideas around. […] We wanted to take like a real grounded approach and make sure that the action scenes really hurt. That it looked like there was a real sense of danger involved. And then we wanted to have each one of them have their own flavor. […] But as far as it goes, aside from a few fantastical touches, [the fights were] fairly grounded, but we wanted to have at least one place where we had an excuse to just really go wild. And that was the Battle of the Smoke…we just really wanted to have a lot of fun and have it just be as imaginative and crazy as we could go.”
Watch the full interview with Dave Boyle
About House of Ninjas
Ninjas existed throughout many pivotal times in Japanese history — but what if they were still secretly undertaking missions in modern society? Set in today’s Japan, this series tells the story of the Tawara family, the last ninja clan who abandoned their roots after a mission gone wrong. Now, an unprecedented crisis beckons the family back into action.
House of Ninjas Season 2? Let’s just say it is there if the views of season 1 support it. So do myself, other fans, and this amazing group of talent a favor and go watch House of Ninjas, now streaming on Netflix.
