The New Dragon Ball Super Movie Should Set Up A New Anime Series

Update: Since this article was written, a New Dragon Ball Super Movie has been announced for 2022!

The new Dragon Ball movie should also set up the next anime series. Fans have been waiting long enough. There’s been virtually nothing on the front of official Dragon Ball content for the screen in years; Dragon Ball Super‘s anime ended its run in 2018 (2019 for the US Dub), while the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie similarly hit theaters at the end of 2018. We’ve now gone so long without Dragon Ball Super anime that the Super Dragon Ball Heroes promo anime has almost been running longer than DBS ever did.

It’s time for Dragon Ball to move forward, and the only hope we’ve had is the announcement that a second Dragon Ball Super movie is in development.

News of a Dragon Ball Super movie to follow Broly first hit the Internet in 2019. When Japan released Dragon Ball Super: Broly on Blu-ray and DVD, one piece of bonus material included a booklet featuring an interview with Akio Iyoku, director of the Dragon Ball Unit with Shueisha. One specific section of Iyoku’s interview made it onto social media – the part where the Dragon Ball executive claimed the following:

“Now for our next steps, we are steadily preparing for the next movie… Broly was so strong that I think the next one will probably be totally different. I’ve overcome various hurdles with parts of Broly, so I won’t get burned out. I think that Dragon Ball will continue on, so I want fans to look forward to it.”

Since then, we’ve heard nothing official about the next Dragon Ball Super movie – presumably because Toei has been working out what it should be. The other mitigating factor is, of course, the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world of entertainment in 2020; there’s no way to tell if the next Dragon Ball movie was supposed to be announced last year, but had to push back its production/release plans back like every other film.

We know that a new Dragon Ball movie is coming – but we have no idea what it’s intended story is. That said, it seems like a new film is a perfect opportunity to launch the next Dragon Ball anime. Broly was a milestone success that proved Dragon Ball has real pull at the international box office – so all those fans out there starving for new content will show up. We’ve also broken down ways in which the next movie could easily (and organically) set up a new Dragon Ball anime series.

The easiest answer would be for Toei to use the road already paved by the Dragon ball Super manga. The manga transitioned right from the Broly arc to the Moro Arc – one of the longer and more pivotal Dragon Ball Super stories in the series. That arc saw an ancient evil sorcerer named Moro break out of Galactic Prison, and use his life-sucking abilities and fearsome magic to terrorize the galaxy, killing entire planets. Goku and Vegeta were far outclassed and had to go on separate journeys to level up and expose new powers, in order to finally stop Moro before he consumed Earth.

Dragon Ball Super’s Moro Arc was a game-changer that has reset the status quo of the series. The next arc, “Granolah The Survivor” (see video above) feels like a new era in the larger Dragon Ball Universe; a perfect jumping-off point for a new Dragon Ball Super anime series. The Moro Arc would be the perfect “event film” bridge to get us there.

Either way, Dragon Ball’s next movie can’t be a flash-in-the-pan that comes and goes and leaves fans in limbo for another few years. It needs to lead somewhere – and hopefully, it’s somewhere worthwhile.

We’ll keep you updated on what happens next with Dragon Ball Super.