Evangelion’s Hideaki Anno to Direct New Space Battleship Yamato Movie
Image by Charlotte DavisEvangelion creator Hideaki Anno is finally getting the chance to direct a new Space Battleship Yamato movie, more than five decades after the original anime became one of the works that shaped his career.
“Cosmoship Yamato √2199 (Root 2199)” is a new feature-length theatrical anime co-directed by Anno and Yutaka Izubuchi, with Production I.G and Studio Khara joining forces for their first animation co-production.
Space Battleship Yamato originally began as a 26-episode television anime on October 6, 1974, following the crew of the rebuilt battleship Yamato as they leave a devastated Earth and travel across space toward Iscandar in search of technology capable of restoring the planet.
The series grew into one of Japan’s most influential early science-fiction anime franchises, with its combination of serialized storytelling, large-scale space battles and dramatic character arcs helping expand perceptions of what television animation could achieve.
Anno has repeatedly described Yamato as a formative influence and was in his second year of junior high school when the original series began airing, later stating that he would not have the life he has today if he had never encountered it.
His involvement with the franchise became considerably more direct during its 50th anniversary in 2024, when Anno planned and produced a series of screenings, exhibitions and publishing projects celebrating the original anime.
It was during those celebrations that he also announced that Studio Khara had secured permission to create new Space Battleship Yamato animation, describing the development much more simply at the time: he could finally make a new Yamato.
Production on that project began in 2024, with its final title and core creative team now officially revealed exactly 52 years after the original television series first aired.
Anno will serve as director, planner, and executive producer on “√2199,” while also handling design work for the movie.
Yutaka Izubuchi joins him as co-director and will similarly contribute design work, bringing one of the most important figures from Yamato’s modern revival back to the franchise.
Izubuchi served as general director of 2012’s Space Battleship Yamato 2199, the modern remake that retold the original Yamato’s journey while rebuilding its characters, mechanical designs, and wider universe for a new generation.
Anno also contributed directly to that production by storyboarding its opening animation, meaning “√2199” reunites two creators who were already connected by the first major modern reinvention of Yamato more than a decade ago.
Despite the “2199” name, the new movie is being developed separately from the existing remake series and is intended to follow a different path rather than simply becoming its next chronological installment.
That existing continuity began with Yamato 2199 before continuing through Space Battleship Yamato 2202, Space Battleship Yamato 2205, and the current Be Forever Yamato: REBEL3199 project.
REBEL3199 is itself now approaching its conclusion after the sixth chapter was released earlier this year and its seventh and final theatrical chapter, “Rainbow-Colored Reincarnation,” is scheduled to open in Japan on October 30, 2026.
The timing therefore places Anno and Izubuchi’s new movie alongside the end of the current remake storyline rather than replacing or directly continuing it.
The first teaser visual for “Cosmoship Yamato √2199” shows the Yamato preparing to launch from a devastated landscape and head toward space, immediately drawing on one of the franchise’s most enduring images.
No characters, voice cast, or plot details have been announced yet, leaving it unclear how closely the new movie will follow the premise of either the 1974 original or the later 2199 interpretation.
The project also creates a new connection between Studio Khara and Production I.G, with the two studios collaborating on an animated production for the first time.
Anno’s relationship with Production I.G had already become considerably closer before the movie was unveiled, with the Evangelion creator officially joining the studio’s board of directors in August 2025.
Production I.G is best known for anime including Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass and Kaiju No. 8, while Anno founded Studio Khara after leaving Gainax and used the studio to produce the four Rebuild of Evangelion movies.
Yoshinobu Nishizaki is credited for the original work, with Production I.G co-founder Mitsuhisa Ishikawa joining Anno on planning duties and Shin Office Academy handling production.
A release window for “Cosmoship Yamato √2199” has not yet been announced, with further story, cast, and theatrical details set to be revealed as production continues.
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