'Dragon Ball Super' Jump Festa Schedule Has Fans Curious About Broly's Future

Dragon Ball fans are super curious about what the franchise has planned for Broly after the Saiyan [...]

Dragon Ball fans are super curious about what the franchise has planned for Broly after the Saiyan powerhouse makes his official canon debut in the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie this fall. The big question looming on the horizon is whether or not Broly will be a one-and-done villain in the feature, or will he have a larger role to play in the next era of the Dragon Ball franchise?

Well, we may be getting our first hint as to that answer, based on the schedule for an upcoming Dragon Ball Super panel at Jump Festa!

As you can see in the exchange above, there will be a Dragon Ball Super panel at the December 23rd Jump Festa, which is one week after Dragon Ball Super: Broly's premiere in Japan. After seeing that confirmation, fans instantly turned toward speculation about why Broly's voice actor, Bin Shimada, would be included in that mix.

On the one hand, Shimada could be appearing with Masako Nozawa (Goku) and Ryo Horikawa (Vegeta) because it will be the first time to really discuss the film in public with full SPOILERS, since it will already be out in theaters. On the other hand, it could also be a planned event designed to capitalize on the hype over Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and reveal Broly's larger role in the franchise to follow, thereafter. In fact, the two ideas are not all mutually exclusive: this Jump Festa could be for the purpose of both discussing what happened in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, while having that discussion then proceed into teases or announcements about Broly's larger future.

We've already broken down the two sides of whether having Broly become a Dragon Ball recurring character is a good idea. The argument basically boils down to this: Broly works like an ace in pocket that Dragon Ball can pull out whenever it needs to create a major event. On the other hand, given where we find ourselves in the lore after Dragon Ball Super (bigger powers), and what this Broly movie will reveal about his deeper connection to Goku and Vegeta, it seems like there's now space for Broly to join so many other franchise villains as one of Goku's allies.

Do you think Broly is headed for a much bigger role in the franchise? Let us know in the comments!

Dragon Ball Super: Broly will hit Japanese theaters in December, and is expected to arrive in the U.S. on January 16, 2019. Dragon Ball Super is currently airing its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. ET. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete and available to stream on Funimation, VRV and Crunchyroll.