Chainsaw Man Just Proved It Can Out-Gross Anything — So What Does MAPPA Do Next?
When Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc hit Japanese theaters and started printing money, most of us assumed it would be a one-and-done event: a flashy bridge between Season 1 and whatever came next. Instead, the film became one of the year’s biggest anime box office stories — raking in over ¥8.77 billion (roughly $56 million) in Japan alone, with Crunchyroll rolling it out worldwide to a fanbase that spent the entire runtime screaming at the beach scene. Now that the dust has settled, the question everyone in the fandom is asking is violently simple: what’s the next movie?
MAPPA, Toho, and the returning creative core — director Tatsuya Yoshihara, scriptwriter Hiroshi Seko, and composer Kensuke Ushio — have stayed characteristically silent. But silence is just fuel for the internet’s favorite engine: unhinged fan theories. Here are the five biggest predictions about Chainsaw Man’s next theatrical outing, ranked by how likely they are to actually happen (and how much they’d break Twitter if they did).
Theory 1: The Katana Man Arc Gets the Full Movie Treatment
The most obvious candidate is the arc that immediately follows Reze in the manga: the Katana Man / Samurai Sword arc. It has everything a theatrical sequel needs — a brutal villain with a personal grudge, a shocking ambush, Denji literally getting his heart ripped out, and that nightmarish showdown where Katana Man and Denji tear through a moving train. It’s compact, visceral, and ends on a gut-punch that would be the perfect cliffhanger for a post-credits scene.
MAPPA has already shown it understands how to turn a contained arc into a cinematic blockbuster. Adapting Katana Man next would be the safe, smart, commercially bulletproof choice — which is exactly why some fans are convinced it’s not what’s happening.
Theory 2: They Skip Straight to the International Assassins Arc
The bolder theory circulating on forums is that MAPPA skips ahead to the International Assassins arc — the story that introduces Quanxi, Santa Claus, and the infamous Darkness Devil sequence; a stretch of manga so visually unhinged it’s basically a horror film wearing an action anime’s skin.
Proponents argue that Yoshihara’s background in kinetic, high-energy action (he’s the director best known for Black Clover and its movie) makes the Assassins arc the ultimate flex. A hotel that becomes a hellscape, a devil that speaks in severed hands, and Power and Denji fighting in their underwear: that’s not a TV season, that’s an event film. The counterargument is equally loud: skipping Katana Man would butcher the narrative buildup to Aki’s tragedy. Both sides are very online about it.
Theory 3: Reze Is Coming Back — and the Movie Is Hiding It
Here’s the theory that refuses to die: Reze isn’t gone. As a hybrid, Reze shares Denji’s regenerative immortality, and the manga has always hinted that her story isn’t finished. Fans have combed through the movie frame by frame, convinced that background extras, audio cues, and the way certain scenes linger on water are deliberate breadcrumbs pointing to her eventual return in the manga’s second half (the Academy Saga).
The emotional weapon here is the beach scene — the movie’s centerpiece, where Reze admits she wished Denji had taken her to the sea. It’s the kind of moment that turns a blood-soaked franchise into a tragedy, and the fandom’s refusal to let go of it is honestly kind of beautiful. If the next movie opens with a shot of a woman with short hair and a longing stare near the ocean, the theater will need a mop.
Theory 4: The Gun Devil Arc Starts — and a Certain Someone Dies
This is the theory that makes seasoned manga readers go quiet. The Reze Arc sits terrifyingly close to the Gun Devil arc: the stretch where Aki’s revenge quest collides with Makima’s schemes, and Chainsaw Man delivers its most devastating gut punch. The theory predicts the next movie (or a two-parter) covers Katana Man plus the beginning of the Gun Devil arc — ending on the moment that fundamentally changes Aki’s fate.
Why would MAPPA do this? Because it would make the second film an emotionally devastating counterweight to the Reze movie’s romance. Love story first, tragedy second — that’s the kind of one-two punch that sells out IMAX screens and floods social media with crying reactions. It’s also the theory with the highest “I need therapy” risk, which, let’s be honest, is exactly this franchise’s brand.
Theory 5: The Control Devil Tease — Nayuta’s Shadow
Finally, there’s the long-game theory: the next movie ends with the setup for Part 2’s Academy Saga, teasing the reincarnation of Makima and the arrival of Nayuta. Fans point to how deliberately the film handles Makima’s scenes — the warmth that feels fake, the smiles that don’t reach her eyes — as evidence that MAPPA is already planting seeds for the Control Devil’s final act. A post-credits scene showing a young girl with braided hair and a familiar predatory grin would be the single most-discussed ten seconds of the year. We’d never stop talking about it.
The One That Changes Everything: The Two-Parter Gambit
And then there’s the theory that quietly terrifies and excites everyone in equal measure: MAPPA is planning the next two films — an ambitious two-parter covering everything from Katana Man through the Control Devil climax. Think of it as Chainsaw Man’s Infinity Castle play, the same event-film strategy that has the anime world’s eyes locked on Demon Slayer’s theatrical finale hitting Netflix this month. The anime movie landscape has changed: fans now expect theatrical events that double as cultural moments. If MAPPA goes all-in, the part where Power makes her final stand could be the most devastating anime theater experience since… well, ever.
What We Actually Know
Here’s the honest ground truth: the Reze Arc movie proved that Chainsaw Man isn’t just an anime — it’s a theatrical force. With Crunchyroll’s worldwide release pipeline, the sequel’s announcement will be a global event, not a Japanese one. Whether MAPPA plays it safe with Katana Man, swings for the fences with the Assassins, or pulls the two-parter gambit, one thing is certain: Denji’s story on the big screen is only getting started.
If you’re hungry for more anime event news this season, don’t miss our breakdown of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’s Netflix release, or the Overgeared anime’s October 2 Crunchyroll premiere — and if you love sequels that took forever, Madoka Magica’s 13-year-later movie will make you feel old.
So, What’s Your Theory?
Here’s the question I’ll leave you with: if MAPPA announces the next Chainsaw Man movie right now, which arc do you want it to adapt — and which one do you genuinely believe it will be? Are you team Katana Man, team Assassins, or team “give me the two-parter and destroy me emotionally”? Drop your prediction in the comments — when the announcement finally drops, we’ll be back to check who called it. 🩸⛓️
