Press release: Fans worldwide received a special surprise this Goku Day, the annual Dragon Ball celebration, when Toei Animation revealed today that a new “Dragon Ball Super” movie will be released in 2022. The Dragon Ball phenomena began in 1984 when Japan’s well-known manga from Akira Toriyama premiered in Shueisha’s “Weekly Shonen Jump” – becoming a top ranked title throughout its 10 and a half years of publication. Since then, the manga’s popularity has continued to grow with an astonishing record of 260 million copies sold worldwide and counting. And with Dragon Ball’s ever-increasing popularity, it has expanded beyond manga to include TV animation, movies, games and merchandising. Now 37 years after the launch of the original manga, Dragon Ball continues to evolve and will reach new heights starting with this new large-scale movie. #DBSuperMovie
The new release will be the second film based on “Dragon Ball Super,” the manga title and the anime series which launched in 2015. The first such movie was the 2018 release “Dragon Ball Super: Broly” which was a smash hit with audiences – setting a worldwide box office record of over $120 million.
Planning for the new film project was kicked-off in 2018, before the release of “Dragon Ball Super: Broly,” with the goal of telling a large-scale story that would build on the enthusiastic response for the previous theatrical series and the current global fervor for “Broly.” Akira Toriyama himself has picked up his pen to deliver a fascinating story that fans desire. From the magnificent story composition to character design to the lines of the script, Toriyama has worked passionately with the greatest attention to detail and highest quality standards – creating a Dragon Ball movie unlike any other in its history and one that will surely be a blockbuster with fans.
As part of today’s announcement, Akira Toriyama, creator of the original story, screenplay, and character design, wrote a special message to Dragon Ball fans. A signed copy of this message is available here.
Fans are encouraged to follow Toei Animation and the hashtag #DBSuperMovie on social media for the latest movie news and information in the months ahead.
