On July 9, 2018 Toei Animation & series mangaka Akira Toriyama shocked the Dragon Ball community by announcing the final premise for the 20th Dragon Ball film project; a film based on infamous movie villain Broly, with a story written by Toriyama. This film would both tweak & reboot Broly’s character and origin story to fit into the current established canon provided by Dragon Ball Super, thus making this the second time Toriyama has opted to make a character not created by him apart of his official Dragon Ball story. The first character to achieve this honor of course being Bardock, the now canonical father of main character Son Goku.
For those unaware, Bardock was not originally created by Toriyama himself the design & story for the character were created by the Toei Animation staff. Toriyama, however did make some adjustments to the finalized design for him. After seeing the story for Bardock unfold, Toriyama was emotionally moved and decided at that point to add him to the original story of the series. Bardock has since become a consistent staple in Dragon Ball being heavily featured in merchandising based around the character and even becoming a focal point in several other pieces of Dragon Ball media such as the video games. He even received a character focused two chapter one-shot manga which was later adapted into an anime short in 2011.
It seems that Broly & Gogeta may be following a similar path to Bardock, where they may finally be introduced into the canonical version of Toriyama’s universe. This is something fans have been requesting for years, but many thought to be impossible at least as far as Broly was concerned who is now indeed canonical. Keep in mind that the initial Broly film along with the Bardock & Gogeta films “Father of Goku” and “A Fusion Reborn” are also being re-released in theaters in HD. Many have speculated that with the news of Broly becoming canon, this is an elaborate marketing campaign led by Toei & Toriyama to give Gogeta the canon treatment while also providing an opportunity to create new content featuring Bardock in future Dragon Ball anime arcs. This isn’t the first time this theory has been considered. After Dragon Ball Super character Kale transformed into her Legendary Super Saiyan/Berserk form in the Universal Survival arc, it was then established that the transformation does indeed exist in the original story, as Universe 6 (Kale’s Universe) is the mirror opposite of Universe 7 (our Universe), so it was only natural for someone in said Universe to also possess the transformation.
Considering Dragon Ball Super: Broly is itself an anniversary project, Dragon Ball Z’s upcoming 30th anniversary set for next year is the perfect time to set up the ground work for a new film or anime project featuring Gogeta’s canonical introduction into the story, as well as further establishing Bardock. Of course this is all a theory based on what we currently know, but it definitely feels like Toriyama & co. have some potential big plans in place for the three fan favorites.
