Dragon Ball Super's New Movie Should Bring Back Cooler

Dragon Ball Super has officially announced it will be returning with a brand new movie next year, and this will make the perfect opportunity to bring back Cooler to the franchise and officially make the villain a part of the series' canon. Dragon Ball Super: Broly was an exciting release for the anime not only because it was the first feature film in the Dragon Ball Super line (if you don't count Battle of Gods or Resurrection F as part of Super anyway), but because it made the long time non-canon villain Broly part of the series officially.

Although Dragon Ball Super's manga has proved that there are plenty of ideas that Akira Toriyama and Toyotaro have for original characters and situations as the new arcs go far beyond the events of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, why should they reinvent the wheel for this feature film project? A movie has to accomplish quite a bit in a short time, and what's a better way to circumvent that than by reusing an older character like last time?

It's not as simple as that, however, as we saw with Broly's introduction to the canon in the previous film. Using well known ideas about Broly's character in the Dragon Ball Z films as a base, Akira Toriyama was able to add even more compelling layers to the fighter than anyone could have expected. Going even further, by exploring the idea of Broly to that deep extent the creator was also able to explore Goku, Vegeta and an important part of the Saiyans' history as well.

As we have seen with the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs in the manga following Broly, Saiyan history has become a deeper connecting thread tying varying elements together. The new movie can take this one step further by extending the story around the Freeza Force. One of Dragon Ball Super: Broly's best features was a heavy involvement from Freeza, and although he's mentioned as a key point of interest in the manga, the villain has yet to reappear.

Maybe that's for a reason? Maybe it's so that when we do see Freeza, finally, he's come face to face with his brother. Bringing Cooler back to the franchise and making him an official part of the canon would offer a natural way to continue expanding the Saiyan history through line in recent arcs while giving us more about Freeza and his family history. Then that's an entirely new way to further connect Freeza to Goku and Vegeta moving forward.

Freeza has been an unlikely ally, so imagine a Goku, Vegeta, and Freeza team up to take on Cooler? This would also fulfill Toei Animation's promise of exciting fights, and Toriyama's tease that this story would be large in scale (perhaps spanning space as they need to combat Cooler's forces) could refer to an thematic and emotional scale if it dives into more familial drama with Cooler and Freeza.

Out of all the non-canon foes that could potentially find new life in Dragon Ball Super, Cooler is actually the one that makes sense as something that could or even should exist in the main series. The idea of Freeza having a brother seeking revenge is an inherently cool one, and there's probably so much more room to explore with that idea should Akira Toriyama choose to do so.

But what do you think? Should Dragon Ball Super's bring back Cooler in the next movie? Which non-canon villain would you rather see instead? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!