The biggest major series in the Gundam franchise in recent years was definitely the 2015's Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphan (IBO). However, there was another miniseries that ran alongside Gundam IBO at the time that managed to steal some spotlight from the main series. The name of this miniseries was Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.
Thunderbolt may have started its life as a miniseries, but it gained mainstream attention through its compilation movies. The first season was compiled into a 2016's movie called Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky, while the second season was compiled into the 2017's movie called Mobile 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 third Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt movie?
Why Hasn't There Been a new Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt movie?
During an interview in Anime Boston 2019, Naohiro Ogata, the producer of Thunderbolt, revealed the interest both from the staff and the company to work on the next iteration of Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt movies. However, rather than creating a new storyline, they chose to wait until there is enough story material from the original manga.
Unfortunately, Yasuo Ohtagaki, the mangaka of Mobile 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 attention to other Gundam projects. According to Ogata, that was the only reason why the next Thunderbolt anime 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 is busy working on other projects, Yasuo Ohtagaki has been working hard to produce more and more volumes of Mobile 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 from the 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 the huge demand for a new Thunderbolt anime.
So will there ever be a third Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt movie? 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 for Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, the production team chose to focus on other projects instead. These projects include several Gundam Build Fighters and Gundam Build Divers series. There are also several short series such as Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis and Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative, and some offshoot projects like Gundam Breaker Battlogue and SD Gundam. The biggest of them all are the movie trilogy of Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash, the new movie Mobile 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 also numerous upcoming games within the Gundam franchise, with the newest one being the mobile game for Mobile 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 new Thunderbolt movie 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 finally work on the new Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt movie. 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 new Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt movies in the near future.