With the success with the re-telling of the Neon Genesis Evangelion story with two movies / OVA’s; Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, the stage was set for the 3rd movie in the series, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.
This movie was announced back in September 2006 and was supposed to be released to theaters in 2008 (Summer). However that never happened and after countless requests from the fans of the movies, Hideaki Anno (Director over at Studio Khara) finally responded to the questions regarding the status of the film via the June 2011 edition of Newtype Magazine and merely stated for the fans “to be patient”.
But how can we be patient after that tease in the form of a trailer for Evangelion: 3.0 that aired after the credits in Evangelion: 2.0? We all wanted to know what happens afterwards, why Asuka ended up with that sexy pirate patch over her eye, what that new Evangelion model was and so much more. So yeah, being patient probably wasn’t something we were ready to do, but what else could we do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpfq5yD2g8c
But what happened? Why did it take 3 years for an update to this eagerly awaited movie? Rumors range from key personnel that worked on the movie leaving, the original plan to air both 3.0 and the final movie, 4.0 at the same time and budget issues. Sadly it seems we’ll never get the official word to what happened but at least it’s still coming, even if it is a few years later.
The movie now has a tentative release date for Fall 2012 / early 2013 (Japan) however there is no information on if this will be released as dub in the USA.
But hey, at least it’s coming…. right? Right?