After Dragon Ball Super: Broly smashed the anime box office when it premiered back in 2018, and with Demon Slayer continuing to slay the weekend box office, it’s no surprise to hear that Toei Animation wants to collect all seven Dragon Balls by announcing a new Dragon Ball Super film right on the annual franchise celebration Goku Day.
To accompany the exciting announcement of a brand-new Dragon Ball movie, manga creator Akira Toriyama sent along a message about the upcoming film.
“An all new movie since ‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’ is currently in the making! Just like the previous movie, I’m heavily leading the story and dialogue production for another amazing film. I really shouldn’t talk too much about the plot yet, but be prepared for some extreme and entertaining bouts, which may feature an unexpected character. We’ll be charting through some unexplored territory in terms of the visual aesthetics to give the audience an amazing ride, so I hope everybody will look forward to the new movie!”
It’s been nearly 40 years since the debut of the original Dragon Ball manga, and yet the franchise has remained ever popular. Though the series remained one of the most popular manga during its 10 and a half year-long run, the franchise became a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. when the sequel anime Dragon Ball Z started airing on Cartoon Network’s Toonami programming block, introducing a whole new generation to the wonders of anime and putting the entire Toonami block on the map as the destination for exciting anime content during the ‘90s
Dragon Ball Super premiered back in 2015 as a sequel to Dragon Ball Z, set 10 years after the defeat of Majin Buu and introducing brand new Saiyan forms. Now, the release of a new film set in the Super continuity is exciting for many reasons, but the main one is the involvement of original creator Toriyama, which would make this only the third film made with his direct involvement. That Toriyama is also teasing an unexpected character both reason to be excited, and reason to start theorizing about who will join the still-untitled movie.
The new Dragon Ball Super film doesn’t have a release date yet beyond 2022, but we’re already here for all the theories and speculation as to the plot.