Should the New Dragon Ball Super Film Could Finally Reintroduce Uub?

Massive Dragon Ball news broke this week when Akio Iyoku, Shueisha's director of the Dragon Ball Unit, confirmed in a bonus interview with the Japanese release of the Dragon Ball Super: Broly Blu-ray that a new Dragon Ball Super movie was already in development.

This puts Dragon Ball Super in an interesting place. Dragon Ball Super: Broly was the far and away the most successful film in franchise history (raking in a whopping $124.5 million at the box office) and the Dragon Ball Super manga is firing on all cylinders with the ongoing Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc. But the anime has been on hiatus since the end of the Tournament of Power arc in March 2018, and despite rumors there's no confirmation that the show will return at any point this year.

So what direction could the new film go in? Adapting the current manga arc would be one option, but since the story is still ongoing it's too early to tell if the entire saga would be able to fit into one movie. But there's another direction the film could take that, just like with Broly, could excite fans while also revitalizing a character from the franchise's past.

It's time to finally introduce Uub into the Dragon Ball Super story.

For those who don't know, back in the original Dragon Ball Z run the final three manga chapters, titled the Peaceful World Saga, centered around Goku finding the human reincarnation of Kid Buu, Uub, at the World Martial Arts tournament. After a brief fight between the two, Goku convinces Uub to become his student and the two fly off together to start training.

Because the events of Dragon Ball Super have taken place in the 10-year time gap between the Kid Buu and Peaceful World Sagas, Uub hasn't played a role in either the manga or anime as of yet beyond a passing mention here and there. Bringing him in would not only get fans excited about the future of the franchise, but also fix one of the biggest mistakes made by Dragon Ball GT.

Since Super takes place during DBZ's time skip, everything that happens in the new series is essentially just a prequel to Peaceful World Saga. That means that even though some of these sagas have put literal universes on the line, there are no real stakes because we as fans have already seen that every major character survives. Having Uub join Goku and the gang would officially make Dragon Ball Z's original ending non-canon, and would finally bring some tension and stakes to a series that has been desperately needing it.

On top of that, the movie would also give the series a fresh start with Uub, just like the last movie reinvigorated the character of Broly. Being the literal reincarnation of Kid Buu and the only martial arts student of Son Goku makes Uub a potentially fascinating character, but he's barely in DBZ and was inexplicably sidelined for most of Dragon Ball GT. He pops up at the start of the first episode, has two brief fights with Baby Vegeta, plays only bit parts in the final two sagas... and that's it.

For years fans have been waiting for someone to use this character to its full potential. And now that we've seen Toei Animation can take a character as simplistic as Broly and turn him into one of the most compelling personalities in the entire franchise in just a matter of hours, now is the perfect time to do the same thing with Uub.