The Vinland Saga Season 2 anime continues to be teased by WIT Studio director Shuuhei Yabuta.
Earlier in the year, he’d created a drawing featuring a Vinland Saga 2 easter egg, but now he’s been talking about the second season more directly.
In early October 2020, the director announced that he would be joining the CG staff at Studio MAPPA to help them finish Attack On Titan Season 4.
Director Yabuta was the 3D director on all of the Attack On Titan seasons except for Season 3: Part 1. Yabuta will be the only returning staff from WIT Studio (in general, most people in the Japanese anime industry are freelancers who work on a per-contract basis).
Yabuta also announced that he has his “own directing title,” so he can’t “focus on AoT only,” which could be a reference to him directing the Vinland Saga Season 2 anime project since his involvement in any other project hasn’t been confirmed yet.
On October 27, 2020, WIT Studio held an online Livestream talk show where the staff discussed the Vinland Saga anime production.
While most of the talk show was in Japanese, they did make sure to speak in English for a message to international fans. During this message, Yabuta talked directly about Vinland Saga Season 2.
Vinland Saga 2 confirmed to be of interest to WIT Studio
Notably, the director said on Twitter, “I think most of the stories will be about the first season, but I would like to touch on as many stories as possible, including our recent situation, so I would be grateful if you could take a look!”
Wait a minute… if the stories are about the first season, then are they planning a second season?! The director addressed fans’ questions with a follow-up tweet.
“My messages may not satisfying, but that’s all I can tell you now,” Yabuta wrote. “I appreciate your understanding. We believe that this series will continue, and we’ll keep working on it!”
The director was similarly direct during the talk show.
“I think some people want to know about our future involvement. Unfortunately, we can’t talk officially about it yet. We had some problems this year. We needed time to resolve those problems one by one. We’re still working on it. We’re doing what we can to continue this series. It might take some time, a little-big time, to bring you the next big announcement, but I’d grateful if you’d continue supporting Vinland Saga. And support [Vinland Saga manga creator Makoto] Yukimura-sensei. That’s all I can tell you today.”
What does that mean, exactly? While Vinland Saga Season 2 was not officially announced during the talk show, the director says he and the team at WIT Studio want to continue to work on the anime series.
It’s possible that the anime production committee has not made up their minds, so the director is trying to drum up support for the idea.
Or, the production of Vinland Saga Season 2 may have already been secretly greenlit, and the studio is not ready to make the announcement official. After all, some anime news leakers had already claimed months ago that the production is already in the “pipeline.”
In a similar example, leaks also claimed that Re:ZERO Season 2 was put into early production several years ago, but the project wasn’t officially announced until much later (notably, the producer for that series is already teasing fans about the Re:ZERO Season 3 anime even as they’re waiting on the 2021 Re:ZERO Season 2 Part 2).
Let’s just hope that the situation is similar for Vinland Saga, and the Vinland Saga Season 2 release date is announced for 2021.
Assassin’s Creed/Vinland Saga manga crossover released
Later in 2020, video game developer Ubisoft is getting ready to release Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Considering this game shares a Vikings theme, Makoto Yukimura created a Vinland Saga/Assassin’s Creed manga one-shot.
On Twitter, Ubisoft Japan released a motion comic video of the comic. It features several ships being burned, and when Thorfinn flees to the forest, he has a run-in with Assassin Creed: Valhalla’s Eivor character.
『アサシン クリード ヴァルハラ』×『ヴィンランド・サガ』コラボの幸村先生描きおろしの番外編ショートコミックはもうご覧になりましたか？#LikeAViking #ヴィンランドサガ #ACヴァルハラ #ヴァイキング
コラボ漫画はこちら→https://t.co/tQrKjp2usM pic.twitter.com/GodhmST1dY
— UBISOFT_JAPAN (@UBISOFT_JAPAN) October 23, 2020
The full manga crossover will eventually be released with an English translation.