Dragon Ball Super’s Anime Might Be Coming Back Sooner Than You Think

Dragon Ball Super just might be on the verge of a big comeback in 2026, and the anime or manga might be coming back sooner than we all think as a major new event is teasing some big announcements. Dragon Ball Super‘s anime has been on a hiatus since the release of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero in 2022, but there was a manga keeping the story going forward. It too unfortunately had gone on hiatus following franchise creator Akira Toriyama’s passing in 2024 with a brief return during this pause for a single chapter adapting Toriyama’s final bit of story left behind.

But it’s been a different case for the Dragon Ball anime franchise on a whole. Producer Akio Iyoku and another creative team oversaw the release of a brand new anime, Dragon Ball Daima, featuring Toriyama’s final input but originally approached the project as its own thing. Iyoku has since gone on record with the promise that there could be more of the Dragon Ball anime released someday, and that might happen as early as next year if we’re lucky.

Dragon Ball Has Big Plans for 2026

Dragon Ball has announced a special 40th anniversary celebration event coming on January 25th in Japan next year, and has already confirmed that they will be sharing the first look at new projects. One of such is teased to be a new video game, but the other is still very much a mystery. If we’re lucky, this could be the start of a new Dragon Ball anime release. The easiest route to take would be to bring back Dragon Ball Super, and that seems like the route the franchise is going with thanks to a surprising new update spotted by fans ahead of this upcoming event.

Read Next

All 7 Dragon Ball Series Ranked From Worst to Best

The official social media account for Dragon Ball Super’s anime had updated its name to no longer include “2015” as it previously had when the anime was first in motion. This undoubtedly seems like a small change in the grand scheme, but could be the first time that Dragon Ball Super itself is going to be updated in the near future. We could see it announced with this upcoming event, and maybe even see the anime come back sometime during 2026 or early 2027 at the latest. Either way, fans can’t help but be excited for what could be coming next.

Will There Be a New Dragon Ball Anime?

Dragon Ball fans would love to see Dragon Ball Super’s anime to return the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs seen in the manga (that take place after Dragon Ball Super: Broly). And that could be a promising start for Dragon Ball Super’s future post-Toriyama considering the manga left fans off on a huge cliffhanger after the events of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. But it’s also possible that we’ll see an entirely different Dragon Ball anime project announced too.

Perhaps there might be other formats possible for Dragon Ball’s future too. Those behind the Dragon Ball anime might instead choose to release a new movie rather than a TV project (maybe even folding in a past non-canon foe into the official timeline again), and that would still have a lot of success with fans regardless of the story told there/ Either way, we’re all going to want to keep an eye on this upcoming event to see what future Dragon Ball has in store.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!