Studio Ghibli Isn’t Rushing Its Next Movie as Future Plans Remain “Very Unpredictable”

Studio Ghibli fans hoping to circle a date on the calendar for the studio’s next movie are going to need some patience. After The Boy and the Heron brought Ghibli another Oscar, the legendary animation studio isn’t racing to get another feature into theaters.

In fact, conversations about what comes next sound incredibly loose, with ideas sometimes taking off and others simply disappearing. For a studio famous for doing things its own way, that probably shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

Hiroyasu Matsuoka, CEO of Toho, recently spoke with Bloomberg about Studio Ghibli’s future and explained that even the companies distributing its films don’t have much control over when another project will emerge.

Toho and GKIDS distribute various Ghibli projects, but when it comes to the studio actually making something new, everyone else basically has to wait.

"We of course await and welcome if Ghibli is producing any new project, but we cannot ask them, we cannot control, we basically await," Matsuoka said.

That waiting game apparently includes plenty of informal conversations about possible projects, but those talks don’t necessarily mean anything will actually get made.

"We are discussing many projects on a very casual level, and sometimes it becomes realized very quickly...sometimes, well, 'That’s a great idea, maybe we want to talk about it next time,' and it never happens. So it's very unpredictable."

That sounds about right for Studio Ghibli. There’s no announcement machine cranking out release dates years in advance. A conversation could turn into a movie, or everyone could agree an idea sounds great and then never mention it again.

While Ghibli hasn’t released a feature film since 2023, the studio hasn’t completely disappeared from animation. On July 8, Ghibli released the short film Night in the Valley of Witches, which is currently exclusive to Ghibli Park in Japan.

Set within the park’s Valley of Witches area, the short was directed by Goro Miyazaki and Akihiko Yamashita, the animation director on Howl’s Moving Castle.

Night in the Valley of Witches is also Ghibli’s first short since 2022’s Zen: Grogu and Dust Bunnies, the charming little Star Wars project created in collaboration with Lucasfilm and Disney.

Then there’s Hayao Miyazaki, who remains the giant question mark hanging over Studio Ghibli’s future. Miyazaki hasn’t formally retired following The Boy and the Heron, despite the fact that retirement and Miyazaki have had a famously complicated relationship over the years.

There still hasn’t been an official reveal of his next film, but as recently as March 2026, the 85-year-old filmmaker was reportedly "active and working hard."

So, something could be cooking. We just shouldn’t expect Ghibli to tell us what it is until the studio feels like it.

There’s actually something refreshing about this. Studio Ghibli isn’t treating its future like a conveyor belt where the next movie needs a title, release date, teaser poster, and five-year franchise plan before the current one has left theaters.

The next feature will happen when the right project comes together, whether that happens soon or takes several more years.

For fans looking to fill the Ghibli-shaped hole in the meantime, the entire Studio Ghibli movie catalog is currently streaming on HBO Max.