Aniplex revealed today that the next Sword Art Online Progressive film, a sequel film to last year’s Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night, will premiere in Japanese theaters this Fall. The announcement was accompanied by the release of a new key visual.
Sword Art Online Progressive: Aria of a Starless Night, directed by Ayako Kōno at A-1 Pictures, was the first anime adaptation of Reki Kawahara Sword Art Online: Progressive spin-off series. The novels revisit the Aincrad arc of Sword Art Online in greater detail, totaling eight volumes. Sword Art Online: Progressive is published in English by Yen Press, while Funimation and Aniplex of America oversaw the first film’s North American theatrical release.
The sequel film, officially titled Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Kuraki Yūyami no Scherzo, is named for the fourth Progressive volume, and will continue adapting the series. Though the light novel’s official English subtitle is Scherzo of Deep Night, the film title has also been translated as Scherzo of a Dark Dusk. There is no official English name for the new film yet.
A-1 Pictures began adapting Kawahara’s Sword Art Online light novel series in 2012, and have since adapted various sequel and spin-off series. The spin-off light novel series Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, which entered publication in 2014, is still in serialization, while the latest anime adaption before Aria of a Starless Night, Sword Art Online: Alicization, concluded in 2020.
While Aria of a Starless Night remains a theatrical release, Sword Art Online and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online are available to stream on Crunchyroll.
