Sword Art Online Progressive Reveals Key Visual, Release Window

Following its announcement alongside the end of Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld, fans have now gotten the release window and new key visual for the upcoming Sword Art Online Progressive project. Shrouded in mystery with its initial announcement, the newest update for the project confirmed earlier rumors that this will indeed be a film project. Titled Sword Art Online Progressive The MOVIE: Aria of a Starless Night, this project will be taking fans all the way back to the beginning with a new take on the Aincrad arc of Reki Kawahara's original light novel series.

Sword Art Online Progressive THE MOVIE: Aria of a Starless Night, will be releasing sometime in 2021, and the official website for the film released a new key visual for the film project which sees a new take on Kirito and Asuna's designs from the first arc of the series. It should look familiar to long time fans of the franchise:

『劇場版 ソードアート・オンライン プログレッシブ 星なき夜のアリア』2021年公開決定！

キービジュアル第1弾・特報第1弾・メインスタッフ＆キャスト情報公開！

公式サイト：https://t.co/GH3mfREDHK
特報第1弾：https://t.co/XqrKNxuDQh#sao_anime pic.twitter.com/xscKDjWngp

— アニメ ソードアート・オンライン 公式 (@sao_anime) November 8, 2020

Ayako Kawano will be directing Sword Art Online Progressive The MOVIE: Aria of a Starless Night for A-1 Pictures. Kento Toya will be returning from Sword Art Online: Alicization to serve as character designer, Yasuyuki Kai will be acting as the action director, and Yuki Kaijura will be providing the score for the film. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Haruka Tomatsu have also been confirmed to return as the voices of Kirito and Asuna respectively.

Sword Art Online Progressive is original series creator Reki Kawahara's updated take on the Aincrad arc. Seeing Kirito and Asuna's journeys floor by floor rather than skipping them over like in the original take on the arc (which can be seen in the first season), so fans of this duo will be getting a lot more of them after seeing them be split for the majority of the anime's third season.

This light novel series is also fairly long, so perhaps the subtitle going alongside the movie's title means we'll get more later? But what do you think? Were you hoping to see Sword Art Online Progresive as a TV series instead? Will you be checking out the new movie? 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!