Evangelion in 2020
On June 27th, 2020, the long anticipated fourth movie in the Evangelion Franchise film tetralogy Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 will hit Japanese theaters. The film, not only holding the closing of the tetralogy, also comes with a completely different ending than that of the series of which the films are ‘rebuilding.’ Opposed to the first three films, which have simply been a retelling of the series in a new light, the fourth film will have an entirely new, alternate ending than that of the original series, and promises to give fans something completely different to talk about.
Previous Evangelion Rebuild Movies
In 2007, Neon Genesis Evangelion’s creator Hideaki Anno released a movie poster to state that he would be revisiting the series in the form of four movies over the next few years. This re-work was to be called “Rebuild of Evangelion”. The first three movies would be alternate retellings of the original 26 episode series, while the fourth would be a completely different ending to the series, giving long-time fans of the 26-episode series something new to look forward to. Anno is the director, producer, and screenwriter.
The year before the announcement of the movies, Anno founded his own animation studio, Khara, Inc. Here, he would have all creative freedom to create the world he wanted for the upcoming films without stepping on the toes of other creators and their projects. Anno brought back many of the original series’ key creators, including his assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki, the character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, storyboard artist Shinji Higuchu, and musical composer Shiro Sagisu.
The first movie is titled “Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone” and was released to Japanese theaters on September 1st, 2007, and North American theatres on November 17th, 2009. (Each movie took a few years to be released to the U.S. after initial Japanese releases).The second movie is “Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance” and was released to Japanese theaters two years later on June 27th, 2009, and North American theaters March 29th, 2011. The third movie is titled “Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo” and was released to Japanese theaters on November 17th, 2012, and North American theaters on February 2nd, 2016.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Production History
The fourth and final movie is to be released on June 27th, 2020, and the running title as of now is “Evangelion: 3.0+1.0.” Fans have speculated that the title could be a simple stylistic choice, tetraphobia (fear of the number 4), or even have some deeper meaning that audiences won’t quite understand until the movie is released.
Originally, the fourth film was expected to be released to Japanese audiences either alongside the third film in 2012, or a few years later in 2015, but was paused when Anno fell into a state of depression and, when addressed to the public, announced that he could not work on another movie at that time. However, he was then approached to direct the 2016 film series “Shin Godzilla,” and once filming for that series was over, it was announced that production for the fourth and final film in the Rebuild series was underway. All of this led to the eight year gap between the third retelling of the original story, and the fourth, completely different ending to the story.
Small Known Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Facts
The first ten minutes of the film was played in Paris in July 2019. This choice in the location for the small release could be due to parts of this movie being set in Paris. Little is known about the film so far, but there are few facts that fans do know.
Not much time has passed from the ending of Evangelion 3.0 to the beginning of Evangelion 3.0+1.0. In fact, it’s likely to have only been a few hours.
Many of the non-pilot characters are seen to be wearing plug suits and helmets during the movie. This is due to the Paris setting, which is said to have “category 6 core-converted surface” and the oxygen density reads at -3, and the L-Barrier is high. The plug suits and helmets help protect the characters from these effects. It is also implied that the L-Barrier is generating the corroding material and the unbreathable air in the proximities of Tokyo-3 and Paris.
There is a possible introduction of a new hybrid Evangelion between Unit 02 and Unit 08 ( Evangelion Unit 8+2). In the most recent trailers, Mari is seen piloting a half pink and half red Evangelion which may lead to another Evangelion Unit with a dual entry plug.
There are three new enemy Evangelion types in the movie, all with Lilith’s mask and the new NERV logo from Evangelion 3.0. The new Eva units are: Eva 44A (read as “4 two A”), Eva 44B (read as “4 two B”), and Eva 4444C (read as “4 four C”).
The highly anticipated movie’s release will answer all fan questions and give fans of both the movies and the show a different tale than before.