The biggestmajor series in theGundamfranchisein recent years was definitely the 2015’sMobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphan (IBO). However, there was another miniseries that ran alongsideGundam IBOat the time that managed to steal some spotlight from the main series. The name of this miniseries wasMobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.
Thunderbolt may have started its life as a miniseries, but itgained mainstream attentionthrough its compilation movies. The first season was compiled into a 2016’s movie calledMobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky, while the second season was compiled into the 2017’s movie calledMobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower. At the time, Thunderbolt enjoyed quite a successful run. Its charismatic characters, thrilling action sequences, and the clever use of Jazz resulted in favorable reviews both from the fans and critics alike. The fans couldn’t get enough of Thunderbolt and were eager to see more of it. Unfortunately, the next movie never appeared on the horizon. Will there ever be a thirdMobile Suit Gundam Thunderboltmovie?
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Why Hasn’t There Been a new Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt movie?
During an interview in Anime Boston 2019, Naohiro Ogata, the producer ofThunderbolt, revealed the interest both from the staff and the company to work on the next iteration ofMobile Suit Gundam Thunderboltmovies. However, rather than creating a new storyline, they chose to wait until there is enoughstory material from the original manga.
Unfortunately, Yasuo Ohtagaki, the mangaka ofMobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, had to take an extended leave of absence due to suffering from Tendonitis. That greatly pushed back any plans regarding the future anime adaptation. So the team ended up diverting their attentionto other Gundam projects. According to Ogata, that was the only reason why the nextThunderboltanime hasn’t been produced yet.
The Source Material for Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt
If new material was the problem, then we actually don’t have to worry about it anymore. Because while the production team isbusy working on other projects, Yasuo Ohtagaki has been working hard to produce more and more volumes ofMobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.
The movies had adapted the first seven volumes of the manga. When this article was written, Viz Media had published the 17th volume of the manga, while the original Japanese version was already up to the 19th volume. Moreover, Ohtagaki also announced recently that the story of Thunderbolt is already near its completion.
That means there are tons of materials fromthe manga that the production team can translate into a movie, or better yet, series of movies. This is great news for the countless fans that have been patiently waiting for the new Thunderbolt.
Will there ever be a Third Gundam Thunderbolt movie?
Considering the aforementioned fact about the manga, it means the main problems that prevent the staff from working on the series have pretty much been resolved. Not only that, but the enthusiasm from fans around the world is also a great indication of thehuge demand for a newThunderboltanime.
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So will there ever be a thirdMobile Suit Gundam Thunderboltmovie? The answer is a resounding yes. It is highly likely that there will be another Thunderbolt movie. The problem, however, has now shifted from whether they will make the movie or not, to when will they decide to make the movie.
When will Production Begin?
As mentioned earlier, rather than waiting for the new material forMobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, the production team chose to focus on other projects instead. These projects include severalGundam Build FightersandGundam Build Diversseries. There are also several short series such asMobile Suit Gundam: Twilight AxisandMobile Suit Gundam Narrative, and some offshoot projects likeGundam Breaker BattlogueandSD Gundam.The biggest of them all are the movie trilogy ofMobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash, the new movieMobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island, and the new major series,Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury.
As if those are not enough, there are alsonumerous upcoming games within theGundamfranchise, with the newest one being the mobile game forMobile Suit Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphan: Urdr-Hunt. The biggest Mech franchise in the world is extremely busy producing new content. What makes it even worse is the fact that in the middle of this hectic schedule is the lingering issues brought on by the pandemic, which greatly hinders any kind of production and could potentially push the release dates for these titles even further to the future.
Looking at these titles, it is hard to imagine where the newThunderboltmovie fits within that tight schedule. Sure, there are hundreds of people working on these projects, but that doesn’t mean that fans will get these projects any sooner. Yes, it is highly likely that the production team will get back together to finallywork on the newMobile Suit Gundam: Thunderboltmovie. But as to the matter of when they will find the best time to do it, that is still unclear at this point. One thing for sure is the fact that they won’t produce any newMobile Suit Gundam: Thunderboltmovies in the near future.
