Dragon Ball Super Needs a God-Level Villain for the New Movie

Dragon Ball Super needs a god level villain for the next movie if it wants to not only leave a mark with fans, but leave an impact on the franchise as a whole. Goku and Vegeta have both been steadily breaking further and further into the realm of godhood with each new arc of Dragon Ball Super, and while we have already seen a villain test this with Broly, the two of them know are even stronger than they were then. This means that any new future villain coming to the series — especially the one coming in the new Dragon Ball Super movie announced for 2022 — needs to start at the god level.

There are two major options the new Dragon Ball Super movie can take. The first is to top what happened in Dragon Ball Super: Broly not with the level of the battles, but with the depth of the story. But the more exciting one to think about (and the one most likely given the tease about the fights from Toei Animation in the original announcement) is that an even stronger opponent has to show up.

Series creator Akira Toriyama is handling the original story, script, and character designs, and teased an appearance from an “unexpected” character. So this character is likely going to be the focal point of the fights to come, and if that’s the case, they need to be a god level threat in order to properly challenge Goku and Vegeta at their current levels. And that’s only factoring in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

If this new movie takes place after the events of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner and Granolah the Survivor arcs seen in the manga (and potentially even another arc that could start before the movie premieres), then any potential opponent is going to need to be able to keep up with Goku’s mastered Ultra Instinct and Vegeta’s new God of Destruction techniques.

It’s not necessary for the villain to be on the same level, but if that’s the case, then like Broly they’re going to need to be able to catch up quite quickly (like we had seen with Granolah in the recent arc). With Broly we have already seen a fight where Goku and Vegeta have a little fun by holding back (it’s what they do every fight anyway), so why not take it to that next level automatically by having Goku and Vegeta test out their god level abilities in that same smaller way.

A god-level villain would also just raise the stakes quickly and easily. It would also provide an opponent that could push Goku and Vegeta even further in surprising ways. Dragon Ball Super: Broly already surprised with a god level fusion, so sky’s the limit in what could come next for a villain who already starts on that upper echelon of strength.

What do you think? Do you think Dragon Ball Super needs a god level villain for the next movie to succeed? What would make a future villain compelling? 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!