A New York Comic Con panel laid out Project Rasengan, a Naruto roadmap that runs through 2029 and carries at least eight releases before the decade is out, Polygon reported. What the franchise gets from it is a schedule. That announcement landed in Naruto's 25th anniversary year, after a stretch in which the series had little new product on shelves. For several years it has lived on back catalogue and anniversary merchandise. The roadmap turns that into dated releases that partners can plan against.
2027 is the busiest year. A limited crossover anime with Ninku, the martial arts series that inspired creator Masashi Kishimoto, is in production. Its position on the roadmap points to a 2027 debut, though the teaser trailer stops short of confirming a date.
That year also brings the Naruto Card Game, with a simultaneous worldwide release of the base game and its first booster pack in June. Bandai Namco is also taking Naruto Mobile, confined to China since 2016, to the rest of the world, but has not committed to a window.
In-store demos run in February and March.
Only the card game on the slate carries a firm global street date.
Most of the roadmap costs little to bring West. Naruto Mobile has run in China since 2016, so a worldwide release adds markets without new development spending, and a card game sells through existing hobby retail instead of requiring shelf space at big-box chains. June 2027 is the one date a retailer or distributor can actually build a plan around. It lands before the live-action film, which still has no cast, no teaser and no release date attached. If the film slips, the card and mobile releases are what carry the franchise's revenue through 2027.
Polygon reported that the Naruto Shippuden Symphonic Experience is coming to the United States and that new merchandise was teased. Neither is a final announcement. Confirmed publishing news came in the form of Naruto: Shadow Rising, a new manga from Kishimoto, with details to follow at Jump Festa in December. Director Destin Daniel Cretton, attached to the live-action adaptation, sent a message read at the panel describing Naruto as a character people underestimate, who "never stops believing in himself or fighting for the people he loves."