An Attack On Titan movie ending the final chapters of the Shingeki no Kyojin manga’s ending is being teased by anime news leakers.
As everyone knows by now, the Attack On Titan Season 4 release date occurred at 3:45 PM on December 6, 2020. (In Japan, it’s technically premiering after midnight on December 7, 2020.)
Manga series creator Hajime Isayama is around 1 to 2 percent close to completion. The Attack On Titan Chapter 139 release date is on April 9, 2021.
The Attack On Titan Volume 34 release date is scheduled for June 9, 2021. It will contain the final chapter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88zZWdm8ZlE&t=0s
The Attack On Titan Season 4 Episode 16 release date is scheduled for March 28, 2021. The only question is how the remaining chapters of the manga series will be adapted by Studio MAPPA.
Months before the premiere, multiple anime news leakers previously claimed that The Final Season would have 16 episodes. On December 6th this claim was proven to be true by the official website’s Blu-Ray/DVD page (the 16 episodes will be released as two volume box sets).
But since there are at least 45 chapters left to adapt the story pacing would be absolutely horrible. Studio MAPPA trying to condense 45+ chapters into only 16 episodes would upset fans (arguably, they did the same with The God of High School anime).
There have been images from the sound director Masafumi Mima and Netflix Japan which specifically list the new anime as “Attack On Titan: The Final Season Part 1”. As such, the existence of Attack On Titan Season 4 Part 2 seems possible, although fans debate whether or not it will, or should, be a split-cour.
But what if a final Attack On Titan 2021 movie is an option?
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Updated January 5, 2021: Attack On Titan Chapter 139 release date confirmed! Added titles for Episodes 5 – 8 and revised analysis.
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Updated December 7, 2020: Attack on Titan Season 4 number of episodes confirmed. Added info about MAPPA being in anime production committee.
Attack On Titan 2021 movie rumors
Recently, anime news leaker Alter DAC provided some potential clarification about MAPPA’s plans for The Final Season by leaking info. Alter DAC claims, “Attack on Titan The Final Season is slated for 16 episodes,” and “Attack on Titan The Final Season means exactly what it says. IT’S THE FINAL SEASON!”
Alter DAC also claimed a day later that “the Final Season will be pretty steady pacing wise, averaging around 2 chapters per episode!” and “Attack on Titan The Final Season will cover EXACTLY what has been teased in the trailer.”
Note how he emphasized that it’s the final season but didn’t claim that all 16 episodes would cover the entirety of the remaining story.
On December 5, 2020, Alter DAC speculated on the pacing of the final season, claiming, “The anime is still in production, so a lot of things are still up in the air. But closing off with ch 122 seems like a safe bet.”
Later in the morning, he more directly claimed that an Attack On Titan movie ending the series is necessary.
“Public broadcasters have some strict regulations in Japan. And considering how explicitly violent the last arc is, it’s not very likely that the anime sequel will be in TV format,” he tweeted.
Keep in mind that certain scenes of extreme violence can be censored for the TV broadcast and then shown in the Blu-Ray release.
So, let’s consider the possibility of a final movie. On one hand, the anime production committee has to be considering the recent astounding box office numbers for the Demon Slayer movie and whether a final Attack On Titan movie could share some of the financial success.
Studio MAPPA would share in this success, as well. As Alter DAC pointed out, “MAPPA is now a member of Attack on Titan’s production committee. The production committee is the group of companies that own the anime. They’re also the ones who make the decisions. Studios usually aren’t part of that, they’re just hired-hands (Like WIT).”
On the other, ending Part 1 with Chapter 122 means there are 17 chapters left to adapt, which is at least 8 episodes. In the movie format, that’d mean an AoT movie that’s almost 3 hours long unless it’s broken up into two parts.
A movie also means that anime fans, especially international fans in the USA, Europe, and other countries, will be forced to wait even longer to see the final ending (and, hopefully, without being spoiled before then).
It goes without saying that none of this information has been verified by official news sources and should be taken with a grain of salt. Anime news leakers have been known to be wrong (some claimed the WIT Studio change wouldn’t happen or that Season 4 would be delayed until 2021).
But if just the leaks about the pacing are true it definitely seems like either a final movie or Shingeki no Kyojin Season 4 Part 2 will end the story.
Attack On Titan Season 4 ending discussed by the director
In an interview published shortly before the fourth season’s first episode aired, Director Yuuichirou Hayashi made it clear that MAPPA intends on staying true to the manga’s story.
“The biggest point was that I wanted to reproduce the drawings of the manga as much as possible. In the previous seasons, there was really a strong contrast in the drawings, and also a ‘pressure’ to it, even in the cinematography, as if the anime was heading toward us. So I tried to keep this ‘pressure’, the atmosphere and the appearance of the old seasons as much as possible. I really didn’t want the fans to think I was doing something ‘plain. So my goal was to keep this strength that emanated from the anime while bringing it as close as possible to the manga and emphasizing its rough side.”
The director has indicated that even he doesn’t know exactly how the story ends.
“Right now, we don’t even know how this story will end. We’re just going to face this epic climax head-on,” he said based on a quote from a display at the MAPPA exhibit held in late November 2020. “Although I say ‘final’, we still have a long way to go, but I hope you enjoy it to the end.”
Notice how he emphasized “final” and the need to continue to work after creating an “epic climax” (which is definitely what Chapter 122 contains). That may have been our first earliest hint from official sources that a final Attack On Titan movie was in the planning.
Stay tuned!