Crunchyroll hosted a panel with the English cast of the forthcoming Chainsaw Man anime on Friday at New York Comic Con's Empire Stage, also revealing the first dubbed episode.

Crunchyroll's moderator entered the panel and greeted the crowd with high enthusiasm, promising exclusive news to share at the end of the event. The panelists were then welcomed onstage: Mike McFarland, ADR director; Ryan Colt Levy, voice of Denji; Suzie Yeung, voice of Makima; Reagan Murdock, voice of Aki; and Sarah Wiedenheft, voice of Power. The cast members all wore white dress shirts and ties, and Wiedenheft added a pair of horns on a headband.

The trailer for the series played on the screens, and then the panel moved into a Q&A session. Levy said he nearly lost his mind when McFarland called him to ask him to be the voice of Denji. Yeung also described being thrilled to get a text from McFarland, and Weidenheft said she thought she was in trouble when she was taken into a meeting room to be informed that she got the part of Power.

Levy said he never thought he would get to audition for the voice of Denji, as he thought he was too close to the material. "I just felt like I knew him, and I love him," he added.

Yeung knew about her character from "the Twitters," and said that she was "very drawn to her mystery and charm."

Murdock talked about Aki being a "very caring person, even if he's sometimes very unkind."

Wiedenheft echoed Yeung in having known her character from the internet, saying, "She seemed like a degenerate, and I'm into that."

The cast was asked about how they would like their characters to grow over the course of the series. Levy said, "I'd like Denji to get more than just plain bread," but noted, "I've lived off toast many a time."

Yeung expressed a hope that "they become good friends," and Murdock wanted Aki to learn to enjoy life a bit more. Wiedenheft said, "I want to see all the characters become more close, too. Maybe Power learns to like humans a little bit at some point? Maybe more cats? Always more cats."

Some new Chainsaw Man merchandise was promoted on the big screen, showing figures which can be purchased in the Crunchyroll store. The director, Ryu Nakayama, appeared in a special video message for NYCC, talking about his enthusiasm for the project.

The panelists posed in front of the crowd for a group picture before the premiere was exclusively screened. The episode shows how Denji goes from cutting down trees and selling his organs to get by -- accompanied by a small demon with a functional chainsaw protruding from its forehead -- to fusing with the demon after both are chopped to pieces. This gives Denji the power to go from his human form to one with chainsaws in the place of his head and arms.

After the episode, it was announced that there is a Chainsaw Man hashtag campaign that will show a Pochita graphic if hashtags related to the show are used on Twitter.

Finally, the premiere date was announced: October 11, 2022, 9:00 AM PT.