The Promised Neverland Season 2 marked a departure from the psychological horrors and mind games of Season 1, choosing to focus on survival horror and wider ethical dilemmas instead. Whether you love or hate the turn Season 2 took, we can all agree that 11 episodes seem few to fully sum up the supernatural horror anime; so, will there be a Season 3 of The Promised Neverland?
The Promised Neverland team hasn't made any official announcement as of March 2021, so we can only speculate on his point. With other anime, it would've been easier to predict just by looking at the manga. Unfortunately, The Promised Neverland Season 2 has made that a bit difficult due to its divergences from the manga.
Season 1 of The Promised Neverland adapted the first arc of the manga that is, up to chapter 37, covering around 3 chapters per episode. In terms of its pacing and correlation to the manga, Season 2 has been a rollercoaster though fans would disagree as to whether it's of the good kind. Many have disliked season 2 due to its controversial choices, including Norman and Isabella's rushed to return.
In deciding to follow a different path, erasing entire chapters in the process – including the entire Goldy Pond arc – and analyzing certain elements further – such as the demons' dependence on human meat to remain sentient – Season 2 has managed to become very unpredictable.
The complete manga has 20 volumes in total. The conflict we have seen in the last few episodes of Season 2, between Norman, who want to massacre all demons, and Emma, who wants to coexist with them, takes up volumes 14 to 19, with volume 20 wrapping up the story for good.
Since a lot of the manga's plot points and key characters are now missing from the anime, it seems unlikely that there will be enough material to keep this specific conflict going.
On the other hand, wrapping up the entire manga in a few episodes would mean that certain episodes would have to cover an entire volume each– that's between 7 and 10 chapters. This would make the ending extremely rushed, not leaving enough room for the manga's emotional intensity and mind games. While Season 2 did some things well, the creators seem to have limited their choices in erasing so many key manga elements.
Then again, if the manga remains as popular and the second season's ratings end up high, Season 3 of The Promised Neverland can't be ruled out. If that is the case, the new episodes might be concerned with any loose ends from Season 2, as well as possible new adventures not found in the manga.
If a third season of The Promised Neverland is to happen, we don't have a release date yet. Given that Season 1 aired in the Winter 2019 season and Season 2 was initially meant to air in late 2020, but eventually ended up in the Winter 2021, it would be reasonable to assume that a possible third season would come out in late 2022 or 2023.
Stay tuned for more information regarding The Promised Neverland Season 3 as soon as we have an official announcement.
Great anime shows with a new season that will start airing this spring include Fruits Basket Season 3 and My Hero Academia Season 5.
Related: Will The Promised Neverland Season 2 Be Dubbed in English? When to Expect a Dub Release Date
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