No more waiting around.
Following only two months after the acclaimed release of The Reze Arc film, the Chainsaw Man anime adaptation made its sudden return during Jump Festa 2026, with a teaser for the “Assassins Arc.” Though a release date is likely far from now, this is a considerably shorter break than the 3-year wait between Season 1 and the movie.
Other than the series continuing under MAPPA, production details are in the dark, though the visuals of the teaser look very similar to The Reze Arc, so the director and staff are likely the same.
Though lax on major story details, the teaser gives us a glimpse of the major players that Denji and Public Safety will have to face in this latest adventure. With Reze’s mission confirming that even foreign nations and their devils have taken interest in capturing Denji, this arc is building up to be a John Wick-style, all-out assassin brawl with the chainsaw heart as the prize.
Season 2 or another Chainsaw Man movie?
The biggest speculation around this announcement is whether MAPPA wants to keep adapting Chainsaw Man and their other flagship anime through seasons or movies.
Anime movies have increasingly proven themselves to be a profitable and more production-friendly approach for adaptations (aka Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and The Reze Arc), often resulting in higher quality animation overall. It is, however, a bummer for international audiences, as anime films endure a longer production cycle, often taking a few to several months to be released internationally.
The Assassins Arc may also face major pacing issues if done as a film. Unlike The Reze Arc, this portion of the story isn’t fulfilling as a standalone narrative, being one high-stakes, massive fight with several payoffs and setups for Chainsaw Man’s endgame. If released as a season, The Assassins Arc would have the benefit of ending on several intense cliffhangers every week and give breaks to the action. Time will tell which approach MAPPA uses and how the director will handle the adaptation overall.
Perpetual Motion Machine
As of now, the Reze Arc has grossed approximately 9.28 billion yen in Japan and an estimated $17 million in North America during its opening weekend. With woes surrounding the art style in Season 1 having mostly vanished due to universal acclaim for Tatsuya Yoshihara’s direction, the IP has never been in a better place.
From the status of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s strange, sleeper-hit manga in 2018 to a global phenomenon with the greatest moments of the story yet to come, Chainsaw Man and its author are exactly what Denji claims to be: a violent, shredding perpetual motion machine. (Probably not winning the Nobel Prize though… probably).
Until the release of the Assassin Arc, fans of the series can watch Chainsaw Man’s season one and compilation series on Crunchyroll.
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