On Jan. 25, during Genkidamatsuri, a livestreamed Dragon Ball event, many exciting projects were revealed in light of Dragon Ball’s 40th anniversary. The event revealed three exciting upcoming projects: “Dragon Ball Super: Beerus,” “Dragon Ball Super: Galactic Patrol” and "AGE 1000".
“Dragon Ball Super: Beerus” will be a TV series project with an estimated release in fall 2026. The show will stay faithful to the late creator Akira Toriyama’s original vision for the anime series. The series will retell the story of “Dragon Ball Super,” focusing specifically on the franchise's cat-deity Beerus’ role.
This is not the first time Dragon Ball has re-animated a story arc. “Dragon Ball Z Kai” was a redubbed and reanimated telling of the original “Dragon Ball Z” series. The “Dragon Ball Super: Resurrection F” movie was retold in the anime, adding additional subplots and changes.
The second announced project, a new anime series officially set to start production, is “Dragon Ball Super: Galactic Patrol.” The “Dragon Ball Super” anime series has been on hold since 2018, but the manga was ongoing until Toriyama’s passing in 2024. For anime-only watchers, this will be all new content.
This, for many fans, is the most anticipated project. It would mark a return to the anime with significant improvements in style and animation, addressing complaints that were discussed amongst fans online across forums, sites and multiple videos. The Galactic Patrol arc picks up where the anime series left off.
Dragon Ball fans were not utterly without animated content since the hiatus of “Dragon Ball Super.” In 2018, “Dragon Ball Super: Broly” covered events between the last arc of the animated series and before the Galactic Patrol arc.
In 2022, “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero” covered the final arc where the manga leaves off, and 2024’s “Dragon Ball DAIMA” was released following Toriyama’s passing in March of that year. It covered events between the end of “Dragon Ball Z” and the start of “Dragon Ball Super.”
The other major announcement was “AGE 1000,” a new Dragon Ball video game. In 2024, Dragon Ball fans got “Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero,” a fighting game similar to past games in the franchise, like the “Dragon Ball: Tenkaichi Budokai series.”
“AGE 1000” seems to deviate from the usual Dragon Ball games by hosting new characters. The game had reportedly been in development for some time, with heavy involvement from Toriyama before his passing. There is not much more than this known about the game. Its release is expected in 2027.
Toei Animation’s Instagram posts announcing “Dragon Ball Super: Galactic Patrol” and “Dragon Ball Super: Beerus,” and showing the trailer for “Dragon Ball Super: Beerus,” collectively amassed over 800,000 likes. Fans across social media celebrated the series.
Dragon Ball is expected to make another super comeback.
