My Hero Academia appears to be suiting up for another silver screen outing, and this time, three young heroes will be at its center.
When three separate images were mysteriously dropped on Twitter from accounts for the My Hero Academia manga, anime and movies -- each featuring a different character and a different part of a sentence -- the Internet started buzzing with speculation. Put together, these pieces form the line, "He will meet the 'three musketeers,'" with three of the franchise's most popular characters, Katsuki Bakugo, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki, behind it in brand new uniforms.
Given that the art style looks like it was drawn for animation, rather than to correspond with creator Kohei Horikoshi's manga, and the fifth season of the anime has already been announced, My Hero Academia fans were quick to figure out that the tease could only be for a third spinoff movie.
Consolidating this is the fact that the black outfits, lined with each character's signature costume color, are also entirely original, further underscoring the fact that this will be an entirely separate project from the manga or TV series. The announcement of an OVA/ONA would be unlikely to receive this much marketing fanfare, either.
While extremely little is known yet as to what this upcoming film will entail, the musketeers reference goes right to the heart of the series' most important superpowers: One For All, currently held by Midoriya, and its villainous counterpart, All For One. Those names are, of course, the two halves of Alexendre Dumas' catchphrase for the Three Musketeers, so it's highly likely that the film will be a three-hander, spotlighting Bakugo, Midoriya and Todoroki equally, after putting the focus mostly on the former two in Heroes Rising. Plus, this would be movie number three, so it all adds up.
The unnamed My Hero Academia project has yet to receive a title or release date.
The My Hero Academia manga is available in English from Viz Media with chapters available weekly on Viz's official site and through the Shonen Jump app. The My Hero Academia anime will return for a fifth season in spring 2021, though its exact release date has not yet been announced.