‘Dragon Ball Super: Broly’ Teases the Survival of Even More Saiyans

Dragon Ball Super: Broly delivers the biggest retcon of the Saiyan race’s backstory that we’ve ever seen, but along with re-imagining the past in a more comprehensive and streamlined way, Broly also opens some big doors to the future of the franchise.

One of the most exciting revelations of Broly is the fact that we now know that there are potentially more Saiyans than just Broly who survived Planet Vegeta’s destruction!

In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, the Dragon Ball Minus version of Goku’s origin and Bardock’s backstory is adapted into official canon. Part of that manga story (and now official canon thanks to Broly), revealed that Vegeta, Raditz , and Nappa were offworld with a team of Freeza Force Saiyans when Freeza orders the Saiyan race back to Planet Vegeta. Vegeta’s team ignores the call – which is good, as it turns out, because Freeza’s request is actually an ambush, in which he annihilates Planet Vegeta and all the Saiyans on it, in one fell swoop.

While Dragon Ball Z has created the impression that Goku, Vegeta, Raditz and Nappa were the only survivors of Planet Vegeta, Broly has now created a much wider window of opportunity for there to be more “Lost Saiyan” reveals in the series.

First, in this retconned canon, Broly and Paragus and Beets were all survivors of Planet Vegeta’s destruction, having been marooned on Planet Vampa after Broly was exiled. Beets and Paragus both die during the film, but if they were forgotten on some distant planet, then other could’ve been as well. Similarly, the team that was with Vegeta could reveal some new Saiyan characters that we haven’t seen before – and there could easily be other teams revealed to have missed or ignored Freeza’s call.

We’ve already broken down how Dragon Ball Super: Broly could easily set up a “Lost Saiyans Arc”, and now that the film is out, that storyline seems like an even more logical step than before. Broly ends on the milestone moment of Goku and Broly cementing a tenuous friendship, with Goku embracing his true identity by finally speaking his Saiyan name, “Kakarot.” That’s a major character development that deserves to be further nurtured; after meeting Broly, plus an entire other universe of noble Saiyans (Universe 6), Goku and Vegeta taking up more responsibility to lead what remains of the Saiyans would be interesting to see.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is out now. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release is available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.