Sunrise announced during a commemorative screening of the special edition of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM anime film on Friday a new prequel project titled Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM ZERO, or SEED FREEDOM ZERO for short.

Director Mitsuo Fukuda, producer Hisakazu Naka, and Sōichirō Hoshi, voice of Kira Yamato, were in attendance at the stage greeting for the commemorative screening. They revealed that screenwriter Chiaki Morosawa and Shigeru Morita wrote the scenario while planning for Gundam Seed Freedom. In addition, Fukuda stated that the script for SEED FREEDOM ZERO was completed 20 years ago. The storyboards were nearly half finished, and the oldest storyboards actually predate those of Gundam Seed Freedom. He added that 20 years ago, SEED FREEDOM ZERO was originally planned as an original video anime (OVA), but the staff has not yet decided how it will be presented now.

Special editions of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM film are playing in theaters in two 14-day limited engagements. One special edition of the film, with an epilogue cut (or cuts) added, played from September 20 to October 3. Another special edition, with a different epilogue cut (or cuts) added, is running from November 1-14.

Director Fukuda explained that due to time, the staff members could not complete every section to their satisfaction in the version that opened in theaters on January 26. With the special editions, they updated those cuts and refined parts that felt off after screenings. Fukuda added, “I think we can call this the complete edition of Seed FREEDOM.”

Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM opened in Japan on January 26. The film debuted at #1 in the Japanese box office. It sold 634,182 tickets for 1,065,983,130 yen (about US$7.20 million) in its first three days, marking the Gundam franchise‘s highest three-day opening in box office earnings. The film is the highest-earning Gundam film in Japan ever.

Bandai Namco Filmworks and Fathom Events screened the film in the United States and Canada on May 7-8, screening with subtitles on May 7, and with an English dub on May 8.

Netflix is streaming the film.

Fukuda directed the film at Bandai Namco Filmworks. Fukuda also co-wrote the script along with his late wife Chiaki Morosawa and Liu Goto. Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed) designed the characters.

Sources: Press release, Gundam Seed Freedom anime’s X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie (link 2)

Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.