Hideaki Anno's Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, the epic conclusion to the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series, is finally coming to theaters in North America.
Anime distributor GKIDS recently revealed that it has acquired the rights to the movie. While an exact date has not been confirmed at the time of writing, GKIDS plans to release Thrice Upon a Time in theaters sometime before the end of the year. The film made its debut in Japan in March 2021, going on to become one of the country's highest-grossing movies of that year, and premiered internationally in August 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.
GKIDs will also launch a home video release of Thrice Upon a Time after the theatrical run. The company already sells Blu-ray and digital download-to-own copies of the original 26-episode anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the movies Evangelion: Death (True)2 and The End of Evangelion.
The original Evangelion anime first aired from October 1995 to March 1996. Set in an apocalyptic world where humanity is terrorized by giant monsters known as Angels, the story follows teenager Shinji Ikari, who is recruited by his father to join the shadowy organization Nerv and pilot the titular mecha. The series is considered by many to be one of the most influential anime of all time, inspiring other popular and iconic titles like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Jujutsu Kaisen. Neon Genesis Evangelion also impacted western entertainment media and references, homages and tributes to it can be seen in modern shows like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe and Ricky and Morty.
Anno created the Rebuild of Evangelion series to remake and expand the anime's original ending, which some viewers and critics found confusing and too abstract. The first film Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone premiered in 2007 followed by Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance in 2009 and Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo in 2012. While Anno has stated that Thrice Upon a Time is the franchise's grand finale story-wise, it may not actually be the last story told in the setting. "There's always the 14-year gap in the story, so in some form, I want to shed light into that," the director explained, referring to the time skip between the end of You Can (Not) Advance and the beginning of You Can (Not) Redo.
All four Rebuild films are available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and the original Neon Genesis Evangelion TV anime can be found on Netflix.
Source: GKIDS Press Release