Netflix’s Idhun Chronicles Season 3 anime will reveal a secret part of the prophecy concerning the unicorn and dragon’s fight against the sheks. Pic credit: Netflix/Studio ZeppelinIf Netflix’s The Idhun Chronicles Season 3 is made the series will begin adapting Triad, the second book in The Idhun’s Memories (Memorias de Idhun) series by Spanish YA authors Laura Gallego and Andres Carrion. But when will The Idhun Chronicles Part 3 come out?
(In Spanish, the third season will be known as “Memorias de Idhun 3 temporada” or “Memorias de Idhun parte 3”.)
Unfortunately, the answer is probably not any time soon, if ever. Author Gallego revealed on Twitter that Netflix has no plans to produce a third season.
“No more seasons are planned. The adaptation was only for the first book,” the author wrote in response to a fan’s question. “No agreement has been reached to adapt the following books, sorry.”
The good news is that Gallego has already been teasing fans about future plans for the overall franchise. On December 21, 2020, the author discussed on her personal website The Idhun Chronicles manga, an audiobook, the Latin America book launch, and, of course, Netflix’s second season, but she also seemed to be teasing something more.
“As you can see, we have some very idhunite months ahead of us; but I reserve other things for 2021 that I will tell you when the time comes ;-),” Gallego wrote.
Hailed as the first “Spanish anime” by Netflix, the animated series was produced by Studio Zeppelin TV. The studio had previously worked on another anime-style production by Movistar Plus called Virtual Hero, a Spanish comic book series created by YouTube influencer ElRubiusOMG.
The project is a collaboration between studio locations in multiple countries. While much of the work was done in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain, they also had animators working in Barcelona, Valencia, Singapore, Los Angeles, Japan, South Korea, and Canada.
Anime purists might object to the series being labeled as anime since the term literally is Japanese for animation (similarly, saying “manga comics” is redundant since manga is Japanese for cartoon comics). However, there is a Japanese connection since Netflix production director Takeo Takahasi is in Tokyo, while Netflix producers Arturo Díaz and Diego Avalos are in Spain.
The director, Maite Ruiz de Austri, has won the Spanish Academy Goya Award winner for Best Animated Film twice.
The first season premiered globally on Netflix with 5 episodes on September 10, 2020. The second season also had 5 episodes and released on January 8, 2021.
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Updated January 18, 2021: The Idhun Chronicles Season 3 update by author.
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Updated January 8, 2021: Added teasing quote by Gallego.
This article provides everything that is known about Netflix’s The Idhun Chronicles Season 3 (Netflix’s The Idhun Chronicles Part 3) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
The Idhun Chronicles Season 3 release date predictions
As of the last update, Netflix or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed The Idhun Chronicles Season 3 release date. Nor has the production of The Idhun Chronicles sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information. In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, The Idhun Chronicles Season 3 premiere date will occur in the future.
Netflix has a history of renewing its anime exclusives fairly quickly in comparison to the standards anime fans are used to from the Japanese animation industry. The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5, Ultraman Season 2, Grappler Baki Season 4 (Baki: Son of Ogre), and Aggretsuko Season 4 were all confirmed to be in production shortly after their respective previous seasons were announced.
Netflix also has a tendency to renew TV series for at least seasons or parts. The Idhun Chronicles anime was a special case since the first was originally intended on being longer.
On her personal website, author Gallego announced in February 2019 that the first season was scheduled to air on Netflix in 2020 and that it would have 10 episodes. Instead, the first part of the story was split into two and Part 2 was pushed back into 2021.
In an interview with Variety, director Ruiz stated that the overall process took “two years and four months of hard work but rewarding work”. Presumably, this time included the pre-production planning in addition to the actual animation work, which is generally months, not years, for a TV season.
Gallego says that Netflix hasn’t yet greenlit another Idhun project in January 2021. Assuming the third season is renewed within a year it’s possible the pre-production for The Idhun Chronicles: Triad sequel could begin before 2022.
Based on that assumption, it’s possible the production will begin in the second half of 2021 and take several years to complete. Therefore, since other Netflix anime productions have suffered multi-year waits, the third season could eventually be scheduled for 2023 or beyond.
But it’s also possible that Netflix could simply have the series cancelled due to controversy.
The Idhun Chronicles Spanish dub criticized
The first two seasons were developed with European Spanish as the original language, with a German, French, Italian, and English dub streaming for international audiences.
The European Spanish dubbing has been criticized by even the original author. Gallego says she was involved in the final section during the fall 2018 casting call, but then Netflix unexpectedly recast the Spanish dub with actors from the popular teen school thriller Elite even though they had no experience with dubbing.
“I want to clarify that from the first moment my wish was that all the characters in the series were played by actors specialized in dubbing. Those responsible for the series had other preferences regarding dubbing in Spanish and it was their criteria that prevailed at the end,” Gallego wrote. “Therefore, I would like to point out that these specific voices are not the ones I had imagined for my characters.”
Some fans even edited the trailer at home to show how the Spanish dub could have been improved.
Este es un mensaje para @NetflixES #MemoriasdeIdhun pic.twitter.com/S18C8Rz9Bn
— 〽️ᴬᴿᴵᴼ℣oz🔊 (@MarioVoz_) August 13, 2020
Fortunately for those in the United States, UK, Canada, and Australia, The Idhun Chronicles English dub did not suffer from such issues.
The Idhun Chronicles manga/books compared to the animation
The story for the Netflix anime is based on The Idhun’s Memories (Memorias de Idhun) book series by Laura Gallego and Andres Carrion. The story was originally divided into six books (Search, Revelation, Awakening, Predestination, Convulsion, and Genesis), but the Spanish publisher SM had the authors split the story into a trilogy: The Resistance, Triad, and Pantheon.
The final book was published in 2006. A pocket edition version of the series, which used the original six titles, was released in 2009 and 2010.
Unfortunately, an official English translation of the book series has not been announced by any publisher, although the trilogy has been translated into Korean, German, Portuguese, and Catalan.
However, a Spanish paperback edition of the first book was recently released in both the United States and Latin America:
- Mexico: November 2020
- Colombia: November 2020
- USA (in Spanish): November 8, 2020
- Argentina: December 2020
- Uruguay: December 2020
- Chile: January 2021
- Peru: March 2021
The second book, Memorias de Idhun: Triada, released in the United States on March 30, 2021. The third book, Memorias de Idhun: Panteon, is scheduled for June 29, 2021.
The Idhun Chronicles manga/comic adaptation by Estudio Fenix began back in May 2009. By 2013, the manga version completed the first two books with 10 manga volumes (Resistance is 4 volumes and Triad is 6).
The Pantheon manga adaptation will release Volume 6 (Volume 16 in total) in 2021.
Authors Gallego and Carrion are personally involved in the development of the animation since they are credited as the screenplay writers.
“I am very involved in this first phase of the project, especially in the scripts, of which I am a co-author, so that the adaptation is as faithful as possible to the book, taking into account that it is a very different medium,” Gallego wrote on her website.
Thus, according to Director Ruiz it’s not a surprise that the story is absolutely true to the books with some minor caveats.
“And thank goodness we did this as a series because we would have had to cut a lot if it had been a film. Having Laura Gallego writing for us really kept everything faithful. Although I will say that she added some Easter eggs to the scripts so that fans of the books will be surprised. But all the characters and all the plots that appear in the book and in the comic are also in the show.”
Reviews of the first season complained that the episodes were largely comprised of an info dump. This high level of clunky exposition is actually similar to the books.
“[The anime] happens to be a very faithful adaptation of a very… particular YA book. They used to be my favorite books when I was 13 because they hit all the right spots (dragons, love triangles, other worlds…) but the pacing is really not well done and they would improve so much with so little work,” wrote Reddit user anukka. “But yeah, the issues are not due to the show script but due to the base material.”
The actual books can’t be blamed too much since Gallego herself said the anime is based on the comics version, “although with a slightly more manga air”. Fortunately, most fans of the book series agree that the source material improves later on.
The first 10 episodes will be adapting the first book, Resistance, in its entirety. Unfortunately, splitting these episodes into two parts meant the first season ended on a cliffhanger note.
Some have also criticized the pacing of the story since the first two seasons cram 558 pages of an entire book into only 10 episodes. This is when Japanese light novel readers begin to chuckle since it’s very common in the anime industry for entire light novel volumes with hundreds of pages to be condensed into 2 to 3 episodes at most.
Assuming that the adaptation retains the same pacing The Idhun Chronicles: Triad anime will likely be around 15 episodes in total since the Triad book is a little bit chunkier, weighing in at 766 pages. Similarly, the Pantheon book is 942 pages long, so it could need around 20 episodes.
The good news is that if Triad is adapted in full then The Idhun Chronicles Season 4 and 5 seems very likely assuming it’s released in 5-episode parts once again. The bad news is that English-only fans who wish to read ahead of the anime may have to learn Spanish.
The Idhun Chronicles: Triad anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
Members of the Resistance have finally arrived in Idhun, ready to enforce the prophecy. But not everything is as simple as it seems.
Jack and Victoria are part of a prophecy that will intertwine their destinies in a plot of love and hate that will cause duels to the death and forge unusual alliances.
The prophecy by the gods states that a unicorn and a dragon would survive and defeat the sheks. But there is a second, secret part to the prophecy which says they will need the help from a shek to complete the prophecy.
Can the Resistance trust their new ally? How will they be received in Idhun, after fifteen years of absence? What will be the next move of Ashran and the sheks?
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until The Idhun Chronicles Season 3 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!