Dragonball Legends

About a year back James Marsters told 411 Mania that the sequel has been green lit. This year he now says he has yet to hear any official word on the sequel to Dragonball Evolution, but hears rumors they might start up again.

Al Norton: Is there any word on a Dragonball sequel?

James Marsters: I haven’t heard anything officially. I’ve heard there are rumors we might start up again but nothing official so I am in ignorance but always at the ready.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Official Source

Sci FI Talk has posted a new interview today with James Marsters. Although it is mainly about his other projects, they do get into some detail on the sequel to Dragonball Evolution (Dragonball Reborn) and other Dragon Ball aspects. The interview is in audio format so I went ahead and wrote it out myself, but if you wish to listen to the entire interview, then visit Sci Fi Talk.

Sci Fi Talk : Now, you were in Dragonball and I have actually heard rumor of a Dragonball 2. Has anyone talked to you at all?

James Marsters : I hope so, they don’t have to talk to me. I am under contract so I just have to be ready. But I hope we do it because the first one was Dragon Ball and this one we could start to get into Dragon Ball Z territories. It’s a lot more energetic, a lot more violence. Dragon ball is really more about comedy and growing up. And Dragon Ball Z is being forced to fight for what you believe in.

Sci Fi Talk : Well the thing about these movies is because of the manga, it is actually a world wide popularity. Not just the US but in Asia it is so huge.

James Marsters : Yeah it has been for almost 20 years.

Read the rest of this entry →

Movie Player reports that James Marsters is currently involved with the sequel to Dragonball Evolution entitled, Dragonball 2 : Reborn. Here is a translated quote from that website.

James recently participated in the series “Lie To Me and The Super Hero Squad and is involved in the sequel Dragonball 2: Reborn, where he plays the role of Piccolo.

Note that it is only a rumor that should be taken with a grain of salt. They might just be re-reporting exactly what IMDB has already informed us (and as stated in the last post, IMDB is not very reliable). 20th Century FOX is keeping the whole sequel talk hush hush at the moment.

The only actors that we have read/heard that said they signed onto three Dragonball films now have their IMDB pages updated. Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung and Emmy Rossum have all updated their status on IMDB showing they are currently involved with Dragonball 2 : Reborn. The other DB Evolution actors on IMDB are not currently showing to be involved with Dragonball Reborn. But should we really trust IMDB? They have not been that reliable of a source in the past (ie the newsdesk) and anyone can edit the information. But it acts like the Wikipedia, seeing how if false information is added it is almost immediately removed.

Also, my FOX contact has hinted towards a direct release to Home Video with Dragonball Reborn. More on that later.

UPDATE : 20th Century FOX Home Entertainment has informed me that there is not any news on a direct release to home video for the Dragonball Evolution sequel.

An anonymous user has sent us this supposed poster for the sequel to Dragonball Evolution, Dragonball Reborn. There is also rumor that 20th Century FOX will officially announce the sequel this March. But seeing how the poster is fake, that little news bit about the movie being announced in March is more than likely untrue as well.

A anonymous user sent us an e-mail stating some rumors going around about the sequel to Dragonball Evolution will begin filming sometime in 2010. There is no actual reliable source for this information just yet, so only take it has a rumor. It was said further information will be available either by the end of this year or sometime in Januray. We will shed some light on this if we get any confirmation from FOX or anyone else that is reliable. Don’t get your hopes up just yet. And if I must say, if they do film a sequel I really hope they treat it much better than what was done with DB Evolution.

If anyone knows anything else about this, please share your information in the comments. But for now, it is all just speculation.

That’s right! Well according to James Marsters that is.

In a recent interview with James (Lord Piccolo), he mentions towards the end that he can actually tell that there is going to be a sequel. Here’s the portion of the interview where he mentions the sequel. (Note that this interview was published in the June edition of a German magazine entitled “Nautilus“, so yes it is new.)

In Spring and Summer, I’m on tour in Europe. Check for dates and ticket on www.jamesmarsters.com. And then we’ll start shooting the second Dragonball movie. (grins) I’ve just heard that I can actually tell that there is going to be a sequel.

So, according to James…the sequel to Dragonball Evolution (Dragonball Reborn “pending title”) will begin filming sometime after Summer of this year. Hopefully we will get more info on this. A single actor confirming the sequel is not enough for me just yet.

Source : Civilized James (read the rest of the interview here)

UPDATE – According to his official site, James Marsters just got back from touring in Europe. This could mean filming for the sequel to Dragonball Evolution will begin shortly. Let’s just hope we hear some actual confirmation on this very soon. But when that first piece of sequel media hits, you’ll find it here.

And as a reminder, James Marsters will yet again be attending Dragon Con this year. It starts September 4th.

Although the box office results for Dragonball Evolution for the US premiere was pretty bad (due to lack of promotion), it appears the sequel may truly be green lit. We get more confirmation from James Marsters in this recent interview.

Al Norton: You mentioned other movies in this series, obviously in a project like this there is hope of doing more but are you already set for them?

James Marsters: I was told the day before yesterday that we’re green lit for the second film and it’s ok to tell the press.

Al Norton: So are you going to just stay in shape? Did you have a little post-production celebration of being able to eat what you wanted?

James Marsters: No (laughing). I went from grueling workouts during Dragon Ball to shooting in eastern Europe for two films, getting a little out of shape but not bad at all. I’m on a good workout now but as soon as I get back from playing music in May the stunt crew is going to have me again.

When I signed on for Dragon Ball I knew it was all about transformation. The characters start at one power level and they transform into a new and more powerful version of themselves, and that happens to each of them more than once. It’s going to be very important to step up and give that physical transformation so that every movie that comes down the road makes the audience go, “oh my god, is that the same guy?” I’m going to have to keep topping myself and frankly I was in better shape for Dragon Ball than I was for Buffy.

Al Norton: Have you seen the finished product?

James Marsters: Yes, three times. I like it better every time. Twice in English and once in Japanese. It was dubbed but I chose to think that the acting was very good.

Read the rest if the interview here.

But, I would only take this with a grain of salt since this interview was taken on the 10th (the day Dragonball Evolution premiered in the US).

MTV posted a bit more concerning the possible sequel to Dragonball Evolution. We hear more tidbits from the cast and director James Wong.

With volume after volume of the original manga and hundreds of episodes of multiple anime series, it’s no surprise that next week’s “Dragonball Evolution” only touches the tip of the iceberg in regards to the epic mythology of “Dragonball.” What is a surprise, however, is that a sequel has already been penned.

“I know they’ve written a second one and it’s pretty far out there,” actor Justin Chatwin told MTV News. Chatwin plays Goku, the hero of the tale, who seeks to recover the powerful “Dragonballs” and protect the world from the evil Lord Piccolo, played by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” alum James Marsters.

“The second one really goes to some different places that I’ve never seen in any comic book adaptation,” said Chatwin.

Chatwin admits that he hasn’t read the sequel script firsthand, but that he’s been told a lot about it and that he and co-star Emmy Rossum (Bulma) would jump at the chance to return for more.

Likewise, Marsters is not only ready for a second chapter, but would like to see the franchise continue indefinitely. A die-hard fan of the anime, Marsters has every intention of fulfilling the arc of Piccolo in live-action.

“We’re going to get to ‘Dragonball Z’ later,” said Marsters, “where Piccolo becomes youthful and he’s going to become the Piccolo that most people recognize.”

Director James Wong was a tad more cautious and wants to reminds fans that, even though a sequel may have already been written (he would neither confirm nor deny the script’s existence), the litmus test is really going to come down to next weekend’s box office. Then again, if “Star Trek” is doing it, maybe the premature sequel is the next big thing.

IGN recently spoke with James Marsters and Justin Chatwin (Lord Piccolo and Son Goku) which whom spilled the beans on the upcoming sequels to Evolution.

Firstly, Marsters told us why he hopes the film is successful enough to get a sequel and how many DB movies he’d like to see: “I hope [the movie does well] because my character only really gets interesting in the second film, I mean he’s interesting now! But his journey is really developed in the script for the second movie.”

He went on: “All I know is I’ve been signed to three movies, but I would like to make five — seven of them. You could just pretty much paint by numbers using the wealth of source material to easily get the seven films. There’s that much there.”

Meanwhile, Chatwin is also obviously thinking about Dragonball as a series of movies, with the actor seeing Evolution as an introduction piece to the wider universe.

Marsters as Lord Piccolo and Chatwin as Goku.

He said: “There’s a whole generation of kids waiting to be introduced to Dragonball, so this first movie is really important for that. I mean the main plot is the battle between Piccolo and Goku, but this first film still serves to introduce the characters and where they’re from and what they’re deals are. And so to cover that ground really takes up most of the first movie.”

He goes on: “I know what they have in store for the second one and it’s really cool! It’s more in the vein of the Dragonball saga… it goes into other places, there’s other characters, other fighters and there’s a lot of action that is just really awesome.

“It actually goes more into Dragon Ball Z land and it’s just really exciting. It goes into the whole legend of Dragonball. I cant really say more than that, but it made me think this is a cool franchise to be a part off because there’s so much we haven’t shown yet.”