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A recent piece of artwork online has sparked rumors that Disney is making a Dragon Ball movie. The artwork features a kid Son Goku in Disney-style animation with a little subtext at the bottom, which reads Dragon Ball: New Journey.
Disney has not announced any plans to turn Akira Toriyama's masterpiece into a film or television series, despite persistent rumors to the contrary.
What is Dragon Ball: New Journey?
First things first: Dragon Ball: New Journey is not a brand-new TV show or film. Rather it's an artwork that's been shared on the internet.
The artwork was posted by a user named Joshua Van Rose on the website ArtStation.
The caption beside the image explicitly mentions "Fanart of Goku from Dragon Ball". Joshua went on to say that he made the animated image to see how close he could get to designing Son Goku's character in a Disney-esque style. Finally, his motivation was to learn Xgen, an animation instancing tool used to create hair.
Needless to say, this work of art is quite remarkable. It's so close to the real thing that many people thought Disney was venturing into the Dragon Ball universe.
Would Disney ever make a movie on Akira Toriyama's series?
This year, Disney bought up exclusive streaming to Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War along with introducing the anime genre on its platform.
Coming to Dragon Ball, it is unlikely that Disney would do such a thing. If they did, they would have to negotiate with Shueisha and Toei Animation first, as Shueisha holds the sole rights of the series' manga and anime. Given what happened with the 2009 live-action film, Shueisha is unlikely to allow something similar.
Even if they were successful in acquiring the rights to a film or television series, they would be subjected to intense pressure from Shueisha. The Japanese titans would be on them at all times to ensure flawlessness that could only be described as "impossible." In any case, why would Shueisha allow such a development when Toei Animation has done so well so far?
What do the fans think?
Fans couldn't believe what they saw after the artwork was published online, and they were surprised that a company like Disney would invest in one of the most successful franchises of all time. The truth, however, soon became apparent, and they laughed it off. Van Rose's work was also praised by some, who said it was completely convincing.
In Conclusion
Disney is not and will not be making a Dragon Ball movie. Neither side has confirmed this publicly, and there have been no credible leaks to provide more context on this.
If Disney did want to make a film, they would have to strike a deal with Shueisha to do so, which is quite unlikely, given how strict the Japanese Company can be. The film isn't in the works at the moment, but there is a project due out in December 2022 and the possibility of a second season of Super airing in 2023.
