My Hero Academia Needs to Show Deku’s Pro Hero Future

With the recent announcement that the final volume of My Hero Academia will extend the ending of the original story, fans are hopeful that the added context will provide new explanations and insights into how each of the main cast end up where they do after the timeskip following the final battle. A key aspect of My Hero‘s epilogue that was pushed to the wayside in the series’ final pages was Deku’s career as a pro hero after losing the ability to use One For All.

My Hero Academia‘s controversial ending picks up after a brief time skip following the end of the war, wherein Shigaraki dies in the final conflict at Deku’s hands. When the epilogue begins, Deku has completely given up the ability to use One For All, and has instead resigned to a life of teaching up-and-coming heroes as opposed to being one. During this time, Deku lost contact with many of his friends who did go one to become pro heroes. While this choice disheartened many fans, there was a silver lining in that Deku was gifted a special suit of armor financed by Bakugo and Deku’s other friends from schools to give him Iron Man-esque abilities so that he could continue his now friendly rivalry with Bakugo, and go about a life filled with heroics. Now that the ending of the series will be expanded upon, fans are wondering which aspects of the story Horikoshi will expand upon.

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Horikoshi Has the Perfect Opportunity to Explore Deku’s New Life as a Pro Hero

While there was a poetic charm to Deku taking a step away from being a hero to instead act as a mentor to a new generation, Horikoshi now has the ability to show how Deku can use what he feels are mistakes from his past to rise above and become an even better hero in the future. The original ending of the series explores this concept a bit, showing the effects of the showdown between Toga and Ochako on Uravity as an adult, and how she still hasn’t mentally and emotionally recovered following Toga’s sacrifice, but only scratches the surface of her survivor’s guilt. An expanded ending could flesh this out, especially with Deku stepping back into the role of a hero, and truly go into what it means to be a hero in society’s eyes now that the kids are all grown up.

Another interesting character detail the extended ending could explore is how, in the original drafts for My Hero Academia, Deku was intended to be a student at UA that utilized different gizmos and gadgets as opposed to having a proper superpower. This concept has officially been brought back with his Tony Stark-inspired super suit, giving fans the opportunity to see Deku as he was originally intended to be, but with all of the development Horikoshi has gone through as both a writer and an artist.