2025 has been the year anime movies have finally broke out in the North American box office, starting with Solo Leveling back in January, and then Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle became the highest-grossing foreign film in history. One of the oldest, and most successful anime franchises is bringing its latest film to theaters in 2026, when Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe brings mecha to the big screen.
It won’t be as successful as Demon Slayer, but Gundam is massively popular and this will be the first mainline entry in the Universal Century since the first Hathaway film in 2021.
Return To The Universal Century
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe
The Universal Century is the core timeline of shows and movies that the entire Gundam franchise rotates around. Think of it as the equivalent of Earth-616 from the Marvel Universe. Gundam Wing, The Witch From Mercury, G-Gundam, Gundam SEED, all of those take place in separate alternate universes from the main Universal Century. That’s why when it was announced years ago that the Hathaway novels were being adapted into an anime for the first time since their 1989 publication, fans of giant mecha duking it out against the backdrop of space politics and philosophizing on the nature of war lost their minds.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway picks up years after the legendary Char’s Counterattack, from 1988, by putting the spotlight on Hathaway Noa, leader of a terrorist group known as Mafty. Of course, that’s Earth propaganda, and Mafty is really rebelling against the tyrannical Earth Federation, but as with every story from this franchise, there are shades of grey to everyone. Char didn’t think humanity could change for the better, Hathaway thinks they can, but if they won’t, he’ll make them change.
Though the story was published nearly 40 years ago, the first trailer for Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe looks stunning. There are no Gundam duels, but we get to see Hathaway’s Gundam soaring through the air and start to descend into the ocean depths, a place few Gundams have gone before, notably Deathscythe from Gundam Wing. We don’t learn more of what Hathaway is up to, but thanks to Kenneth, the man trying to bring him to justice, we get a classic Gundam line: “Never forget that the victor is the one who was in the right.”
Gundam Brought Anime To North America
The Sorcery of Nymph Circe looks to pick up where the first film left off. Hathaway never made it to theaters in 2021 and was released directly by Netflix in the West to critical and fan acclaim, especially from old-school fans of Char’s Counterattack and the original Mobile Suit Gundam. This will be a major test for the mecha franchise to see if it can hang with the new kids on the block, but it doesn’t have to break $100 million like Demon Slayer did; even a box office of $20 million domestic will be a record-setting victory for the film.
Mobile Suit Gundam helped bring anime to North America in the 80s, and Gundam Wing’s inclusion on Toonami in the mid-90s fueled an anime boom, so it’s about time that the franchise makes a major move during anime’s new Golden Age. There’s no release date yet for The Sorcery of Nymph Circe in North America, but the film will debut in Japan in January, so we can likely expect it with the Spring anime season.
Those who want to be caught up for the big-screen debut can watch Hathaway on Netflix right now, while Char’s Counterattack is available on Crunchyroll.
If you’ve never seen a Gundam anime, we also have advice on where to start with Mobile Suit Gundam.
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