NARUTO Is Returning With a New Anime Movie

Naruto fans finally have something big to look forward to. After years of waiting, delays, and silence surrounding the anime’s future, the franchise is officially getting a new animated movie.

Viz Media has confirmed that the next chapter for the Naruto anime will be revealed during New York Comic Con 2026, and the announcement is already sounding like a major moment for longtime fans of the Hidden Leaf Village.

The new Naruto franchise panel is set for Saturday, October 10th, during New York Comic Con 2026. The event will include updates on the Naruto Card Game, other franchise projects, and the first official details on a brand-new animated film.

According to Viz Media, the panel will feature, “An announcement related to a new animated film and its worldwide premiere.”

That worldwide premiere tease is the part fans will be watching closely. If this movie is being positioned for a global release, it could mean Naruto is returning in a much bigger way than anyone expected, possibly with fans outside Japan getting the chance to see it around the same time.

The panel will also feature some guests from the anime’s history. Studio Pierrot executive producer Tominaga Yoshihiko will be there, along with Junko Takeuchi, the voice of Naruto Uzumaki, and Noriaki Sugiyama, the voice of Sasuke Uchiha.

This has been a long time coming. Naruto celebrated the 20th anniversary of its original TV anime premiere a few years ago, and a revival project was announced as part of that celebration.

Unfortunately, that project ended up being delayed indefinitely. Around the same time, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations also went on hiatus, leaving fans with no new anime content from the franchise for the past few years.

Now, instead of a TV return, it looks like Naruto is heading back to screens with a feature film.

The big question is what kind of story this new movie will tell. The Naruto movies have always been a mixed bag.

A lot of the earlier films came from a time when Shonen Jump anime movies could tell fun, original side stories that didn’t need to connect to the manga canon.

Fans were mostly cool with that back then, but expectations have changed.

Movies like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle have helped shift what audiences want from anime films.

These days, fans tend to expect major story content, canon material, and events that actually matter to the larger franchise.

That puts Naruto in an interesting spot. There isn’t much original manga material left for the anime to adapt, which could mean this new film tells an original story outside the events of Boruto.

It could also revisit an earlier point in the timeline, which might make a lot of fans very happy.

One possibility is that the delayed 20th anniversary revival project has been reworked into this movie. That revival was originally planned as a four-episode miniseries focused on Team 7’s early days.

Turning that concept into a full animated feature would make a lot of sense, especially if Studio Pierrot wanted to give the story a bigger scale and a stronger theatrical push.

There’s also a live-action Naruto movie in development, so the franchise is clearly preparing for a bigger comeback across multiple formats. Still, for anime fans, this new animated film is the one to watch.

New York Comic Con 2026 is where the next era of Naruto begins, and with a worldwide premiere being teased, this could be the franchise’s most exciting anime announcement in years.