It’s been almost four long years since Mobile Suit Gundam returned us to the astropolitical drama of the Universal Century in Hathaway, the first in a planned trilogy of movies adapting Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s 1989 novel series. And now, after years of silence, we finally know just when to expect it.
Timed with the franchise’s panel at New York Comic Con today, Bandai Namco Filmworks has released our first extended look at the second Hathaway film, The Sorcery of Nymph Circe. Set in the year 0105 of Gundam‘s primary timeline, the Universal Century—decades after the events of Mobile Suit Gundam and its own trilogy of successors—the story follows Hathaway Noa, the son of the former captain of the famed White Base during the One Year War, Bright Noa, as he leads a resistance group named Mafty in a fight against the increasingly totalitarian Earth Federation’s treatment of space colonists.
Sorcery of Nymph Circe will pick up after the events of the first movie, where Hathaway found himself at odds with the Federation Commander Kenneth Sleg (Junichi Suwabe), tasked with leading the unit meant to destroy Mafty and its leader—only for the both of them to cross paths with the mysterious young woman Gigi Andulicia (Reina Ueda) in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on a space plane. Now circling both Kenneth and Hathaway, Gigi’s impact on the latter will see him shaken as he re-examines his convictions in continuing the fight against the Federation he once fought for as a young boy.
The first film leaned heavily into the examination of the renewed political tension between Earth and the space colonies (a perpetual cycle in Gundam), although in its rare moments of mecha action it managed to deliver some of the best the Gundam series has to offer. This new trailer, even as it weaves between Hathaway, Kenneth, and Gigi, certainly seems to focus on a bit more Mobile Suit action, so maybe we’ll see plenty more of the latter this time around.
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe will hit Japanese theaters on January 30, 2026. No date has been confirmed for a U.S. release, but unlike the first movie, which premiered exclusively on Netflix, the film is currently expected to release in U.S. theaters.
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