Evangelion Announces New Anime Movie For 2026

In 2026, Neon Genesis Evangelion has quite a few things planned to help celebrate the anime franchise’s thirtieth anniversary. Alongside a live-action stage play in the kabuki style and a real-world exhibit honoring the franchise, the NERV pilots are planning something very special for next year as a part of the festivities. Earlier this week, Evangelion announced that a new movie will hit the screen thanks to the “Evangelion:30+; 30th Anniversary of Evangelion” Festival, once again seeing Shinji Ikari and his fellow NERV agents take center stage. With this new announcement, the anime franchise has also confirmed that some big names are helping in the creation of this short film.

On the official website for the Evangelion festival, the franchise confirmed that the upcoming anime will be written and supervised by franchise creator Hideaki Anno. Here’s how the fest describes the film dubbed the “Evangelion Broadcast 30th Anniversary Special Screening“: “The main staff list for the “special video” to be screened at “STAGE AREA” has been announced! It has been decided that a new short animated film, “Evangelion 30th Anniversary Special Performance,” will be screened to commemorate the anniversary! This approximately 13-minute short animated film will be produced specifically for this event. Hideaki Anno will be planning, writing the script, and supervising the project, with Naoyuki Asano, who served as animation director for “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time,” serving as director. Kazuya Tsurumaki, Shinji Higuchi, and Ikki Todoroki, who have all worked on the “Evangelion” series, are also credited as supervisors. This will be screened only once per day, and will be a world premiere exclusive to the venue.”

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If you are in Japan, or are planning to make your way there to help celebrate the major Evangelion event, the special short will air from February 21st to 23rd at the Yokohama Arena. While not yet confirmed to make its way online, we have to imagine that the Evangelion short film will eventually be shown to all NERV enthusiasts worldwide. Earlier this year, Hideaki Anno had hinted at a new Eva project being in the works, but it has yet to be confirmed whether Evangelion Broadcast 30th Anniversary Special Screening is the project in question.

Aside from the upcoming anniversary celebration, Evangelion has been in the news a lot lately thanks to the shuttering of Studio Gainax. Facing major controversies in recent years, Hideaki Anno’s new studio, Khara, retained the intellectual property from the now-defunct production house while the NERV creator broke down what had happened to Gainax. While Gainax certainly faced some rough seas in recent years, the contribution that the studio had on the anime medium won’t soon be forgotten, and many fans are breathing a sigh of relief that Evangelion was able to escape the fate of the production house that helped birth it.

What do you think of Shinji Ikari and his fellow Eva pilots returning to the world of anime next year? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!