Naruto Kabuki Play Reveals Cast Members For Madara

Ichikawa Ennosuke IV, Ainosuke Kataoka star in play that will run in Tokyo
The staff of the kabuki play adaptation of Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto manga announced on Monday that Ichikawa Ennosuke IV (Luffy, Hancock, Shanks in One Piece's kabuki adaption) and Ainosuke Kataoka (Eiga Yo-kai Watch: Tanjō no Himitsu da Nyan! film guest voice actor) will play Madara Uchiha.



Ichikawa Ennosuke IV


Ainosuke Kataoka

The play will premiere in August and will run at the Shinbashi Enbujō theater in Tokyo.

Minosuke Bandō (live-action Tokyo Ghoul's Uta, pictured right in image at right) will play Naruto Uzumaki, and Hayato Nakamura (left) will play Sasuke Uchiha. G2 is writing and directing the play.

Kishimoto launched Naruto in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, and ended the series in November 2014. The manga has 140 million copies printed in Japan, and 80 million copies printed outside of Japan.

The series has spawned multiple anime, anime film, OVA, and game adaptations. The Naruto Shippūden anime series ended in March 2017. The manga is inspiring a live-action Hollywood film at Lionsgate.

Ukyō Kodachi and Mikie Ikemoto launched the Boruto sequel manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in May 2016. The manga inspired a television anime series titled Boruto: Naruto Next Generations that premiered on April 5, and is ongoing.

Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga has also inspired a kabuki play. The play first ran from October-November 2015 at the Shinbashi Enbujō theater. The play then ran in Osaka in March 2016, and then in Fukuoka in April 2016. Theatrical screenings of the play across Japan premiered in October 2016. The new run of the kabuki play ran from October 6-November 25 at the Shinbashi Enbujō theater, with planned runs in Osaka in April and in Nagoya in May.