After almost ten years since the finale of season three, a new season of Black Butler is set to be released in 2024. With two trailers having now been unveiled, what can fans expect from Ciel and his demon butler Sebastian after nearly a decade of silence? Black Butler is a dark fantasy anime series that follows a young earl in Victorian England named Ciel Phantomhive who makes a pact with a demon named Sebastian Michaelis in exchange for his soul. Seasons one and two ran between 2008 - 2010 with the first season focusing on Ciel's quest for revenge against those who murdered his parents, being the Queen’s Watchdog and running the Phantomhive manor and estate - including Funtom Corporation, the most successful confection and toy manufacturer in the world. Season two is primarily a filler season and introduces a new character - Alois Trancy and his demon butler, Claude Faustus.

Season three - which includes Book of Circus and Book of Murder - running in 2014 - returns to the manga and is canonical as we see Ciel and Sebastian investigate a series of crimes including a traveling circus when children come up missing and a murder mystery during a dinner party. A movie called Book of Atlantic was released in 2017, which was also canonical. The series also had a live-action adaptation that was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan, as well as Square Enix, that was released in 2014 and starred Hiro Mizushima - lead actor of the Kamen Rider Kabuto series -as Sebastian.

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What Happened in the New Trailer?

At Anime Expo in April 2023, Crunchyroll announced that a fourth season of Black Butler was in production. A few months later, in July, the first official trailer for Black Butler: Public School Arc - the official name for the season - was released on Crunchyroll’s official YouTube channel, with a second trailer being released in September. Official posters have also been released featuring Ciel and Sebastian, as well as the four prefects - also known as P4 - of Weston College.

While not much was revealed in the first trailer, it was confirmed that the original voice actors will be returning - Maaya Sakamoto and Daisuke Ono as Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis, respectively. However, the second trailer gave fans more insight into what can be expected in Black Butler: Public School Arc. Although the school is not named in the trailer, we see four emblems and four students, each representing a different house. Each student is placed in a house based on their skills, personality, and other qualifiers.

Scarlet Fox House is for students of "exceptionally high birth." The prefect - an upperclassman in charge of maintaining conduct and helping tutor and mentor younger students - is Edgar Redmond. Next is Sapphire Owl House, for students who excel in academia, with prefect Lawrence Bluewer. Those exceptional in martial arts and sports will be in Green Lion, led by Prefect Herman Greenhill, and those excelling in the arts are in Violet Wolf with Gregory Violet. Ciel is not visible in the trailer, although his voice is heard at the end proclaiming that he is going to be late.

It has been confirmed that Black Butler: Public School Arc is not a reboot of the series, but it is indeed a continuation. Therefore, it will follow the manga and will be canonical. There has been no word on the number of filler episodes, however, if season three and the current trend of anime as a whole is any indication, it can be guessed that it will be kept to a minimum, if at all.

Black Butler is now available to stream on Prime Video.

MORE: The Story of Black Butler's Bizarre Second Season

Source: Crunchyroll