‘Dragon Ball Super’ Promo Teases Broly’s Franchise Future

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is shaping up to be one of the biggest – if not the biggest movie release in the history of Dragon Ball, and also one of the most piovtal. Aside from finding out the finer details about how this new canon story of Broly and the end of Planet Vegeta play out, Dragon Ball Super: Broly will also retcon a lot of the series backstory, in preparation for the future that will follow the Dragon Ball Super anime.

One big question fans have about that future is whether or not Broly will be a big part of it. Now a new clue from some Dragon Ball Super: Broly merchandising material teases that Broly could possibly get a much bigger role the Dragon Ball franchise:

The reference to “a new fate” is an ode to the fact that in the original Dragon Ball Z: Broly movie, Goku takes Broly out with a super punch technique that ends the berserker Saiyan’s life. Sure, Broly came back not once but twice in two later films, but technically, his original life span was a short and (not so) sweet experience.

There’s been an intense amount of debate within the fandom about whether or not Broly could (or should) become a bigger figure in the Dragon Ball franchise after DBS:B. On the one hand, some fans think Broly is used best as a character who appears now and again as a kind of major fan-service event; on the other hand, there are fans whose imaginations are running wild with possibility of how Broly could fit into the larger scope of the Dragon Ball Super universe.

Given what we’ve seen from the Dragon Ball Super: Broly trailers, this story is being reframed as a major ‘crossroads of fate’ storyline. The new canon backstory sets up Goku, Vegeta, and Broly as three very different examples of how the Saiyan race has endured past the horrific attempted genocide by Freeza, all those years ago. Within that framework, there are two likely scenarios for how the character and thematic arcs play out:

1. Goku and Vegeta must destroy Broly, and therefore confront the full pain and scars of what happened to the Saiyan race – possibly marking a big change in their intentions going forward.
2. Goku and Vegeta manage to forge a connection with Broly and finally help the engraged Saiyan warrior find peace and/or purpose as an ally for them to call on, or even train.

The latter scenario would make a lot of fans happy, and give Dragon Ball Super: Broly real milestone significance for finally letting fans have a full-fledged version of Broly who gets fleshed-out and developed over a longer span of time. It would also not hurt that Broly could be trotted out for some awesome battles with Beerus, Jiren, Kefla, or other characters we met in the Dragon ball Super series. Recently there was a slight scare that Broly was confirmed to die – but that has since been debunked.

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.