A decade after its last mainline story, the classic magical girl anime, Puella Magi Madoka Magica finally has a trailer and release window for its new movie, Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Walpurgisnacht: Rising. Madoka Magica’s third movie, Rebellion, ended with an incredible twist and cliffhanger that completely changed the story, but that has yet to be followed up in the decade that followed. A new movie, Walpurgisnacht: Rising, was announced at the franchise’s 10th-anniversary celebration, but nothing other than the title and a promotional image were revealed at the time, and no additional news followed, either.
After another two years of silence, however, official information for Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Walpurgisnacht: Rising has finally been revealed, as reported by Anime News Network. In addition to an official trailer being released, the film has been announced to have a release window of winter 2024, meaning it will be released in Japan sometime between January and March 2024 and is likely to come to the West in the spring or summer of the same year. Nothing else has been revealed at this time, but the trailer does give an idea of where the story will go, and that, in turn, can generate plenty of excitement until it finally premieres.
Madoka Magica’s New Movie Will Pit Everyone Against Devil Homura
The first major story beat that can be surmised from Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Walpurgisnacht: Rising’s trailer is that the film will pit all the major characters against Devil Homura. While Rebellion ended with everyone falling under Devil Homura’s spell as she recreated reality, the trailer for Walpurgisnacht: Rising has everyone other than Madoka dressed as magical girls again, so it’s likely that they’ve regained their memories and powers at some point. Sayaka is also covered in a heavy set of bandages, so it can also be assumed that they aren’t having much success in their fight against Devil Homura.
Going right along with that, it can also be assumed that Madoka will regain her memories and fight Homura. While Madoka wasn’t shown as a magical girl in the trailer, the first promotional image does depict her as such, and the 2015 concept movie gave Madoka and Homura opposing views on happiness as Madoka tried to reason with Homura, so Madoka is likely to be involved. Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Walpurgisnacht: Rising is likely the grand finale of the original anime, so it would make sense for them to finally come into conflict before settling on some sort of resolution to their relationship and the story, as a whole.
Madoka Magica’s New Movie Will Reveal One Villain’s Secret Origin
Another likely story beat of Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Walpurgisnacht: Rising is that it will explore the secret origin of one of the anime’s major villains: Walpurgisnacht. The anime and various material to follow have been notably vague on Walpurgisnacht’s origins, not even revealing her true name, but with a title like Walpurgisnacht: Rising, the film is likely to explore her origin and make it a focal point of the story. Assuming that Walpurgisnacht: Rising will be the end of the original story, closing things out by finally developing the character who helped cause everything would be plenty fitting.
Assuming that Walpurgisnacht will be involved in the film, she’s likely to be the key to stopping Devil Homura. Walpurgisnacht was so powerful that she could only be stopped by Madoka becoming God and completely changing reality, so there’s bound to be something to her power that Devil Homura won’t be able to deal with that will allow everyone to eventually defeat her. All of this, of course, is purely hypothetical, but there’s plenty of evidence to that Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Walpurgisnacht: Rising will go in this sort of direction, and more concrete information is bound to be revealed within the coming months.
Source: Anime News Network.
