The next Code Geass anime has a title, a first look and a release window. The franchise’s official YouTube channel has begun streaming a teaser trailer for Code Geass: Star Chaser Aspal (Code Geass Hoshi Oi no Aspal), and the video confirms the new anime is aiming for a 2027 premiere.
Bandai Namco Filmworks is behind the project, which sits inside Code Geass‘s 20th anniversary programme rather than arriving as a standalone sequel announcement. It is the clearest sign yet of what the franchise meant when it said in December 2024 that it had several new works in production.
Who is making Star Chaser Aspal
The teaser came with the first confirmed production credits for the new anime:
- Director: Kazuya Nomura (Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, both seasons of Moriarty the Patriot, Robotics;Notes, the second season of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings)
- Series scripts: Mado Nozaki (Hello World light novel author, KADO: The Right Answer, Another World)
- Character design: Rolua (illustrator of the original Yūsha Party kara Tsuihō Saretakedo light novels)
- Agarmatha design: Yoshi.
- Background and special effects: Junbun Lin (Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- film design, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury – Prologue concept art, key animator)
- Title logo: Ichinogi
The month is still open, but the main cast and the rest of the staff have landed since that first teaser.
The main cast
Bandai Namco Filmworks revealed the main visual, main cast and additional staff on Thursday:
- Ivan Shibata as Aspal
- Hibiku Yamamura as Zoe
The story is set in Kōreki year 606, when the citizens of the Roman Empire live under the tyrannical rule of Emperor Fokasu and a succession of wars with neighbouring nations. Aspal is a young enslaved person in the imperial city of Neapolis who meets a mysterious woman existing only as a disembodied head. The visual also gave a first look at an Agarmatha named Chronos.
The full staff
The additional credits fill out a production that now looks well past the planning stage:
- Sub-character design: Yumiko Nakamura, Madoka Hirayama, Kumi Horii, Hiroo Nagao, Moaang
- Heikon design: Isasa
- Cockpit design: Hisayoshi Kijima
- Effect design: Kanta Suzuki
- Zenex design: Entei Ryu
- Setting research: Seiichi Shirato
- Assistant director: Shinnosuke Itō
- Art director: Yoshio Tanioka
- Colour key artist: Naomi Nakano
- 3D CG director: Takayuki Shigekawa
- Compositing director of photography: Kenji Fujita
- Editing: Kengo Shigemura
- Music: Taro Iwashiro
- Sound director: Kisuke Koizumi, with sound production by dugout
Screenings before the premiere
Before any public release, the anime gets advance preview screenings in five major Japanese cities in January 2027, followed by a limited run of event screenings for general audiences later in the year. A specific premiere date is still unannounced.
The rest of the 20th anniversary line-up
Star Chaser Aspal is one part of a wider celebration. A new stage play, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion – Seido ni Jyunzuru Kishi 2 (A Knight who Follows His Beliefs 2), will run in Osaka from January 23 to 25 and in Tokyo from January 29 to February 1. A 20th Anniversary Exhibition is also scheduled for Tokyo in September 2026 and Osaka in November 2026.
There is a crossover manga as well: Shin Kidō Senki Gundam W x Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch – Minuet Zero (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing x Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion – Minuet Zero) launched on Kadokawa’s KadoComi platform on July 10, with Kōjirō Taniguchi from Sunrise credited with the scenario.
Why it matters
Code Geass has spent most of the last decade expanding rather than continuing. The original television series aired in 2006, followed by a sequel in 2008. The five-part Akito the Exiled OVA ran in limited theatrical screenings from 2012 to 2016, a recap film trilogy followed in 2017 and 2018, and Lelouch of the Re;surrection opened in 120 Japanese theatres in February 2019 before Funimation brought it to North America that May.
The most recent entry, Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture, played in four theatrical parts in Japan between May and August 2024 and then streamed on Disney+ as 12 weekly episodes. Producer Kōjirō Taniguchi described Re;surrection back in April 2019 as “phase 1” of a 10-year plan for new content, and a 2027 premiere keeps that timeline on track.
The cast announcement settles one question and opens a bigger one. Shibata and Yamamura are voicing two entirely new characters, in a story with no Lelouch, no Suzaku and no Britannia in its premise. This is a fictional Roman Empire in the year 606, not the Holy Britannian Empire, and the Agarmatha naming suggests the franchise’s mecha tradition is being rebuilt from a different starting point. That reads like a reset rather than a continuation.
Nomura’s background in tightly plotted action and mystery work fits a series that has always leaned on political scheming as much as mecha combat. Taro Iwashiro on music, Kengo Shigemura editing and Kisuke Koizumi on sound is a veteran sheet to build on.
Whether audiences accept a Code Geass without Lelouch is the question the January screenings should start to answer.
The franchise’s mobile side is winding down at the same time. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Lost Stories ends service on December 7, though an offline Memorial Version is planned.
For more anime confirmed for 2027, see our report on TOHO animation’s Phantom Busters and Shin Oishinbo.
Sources: Anime News Network (cast and staff, via Bandai Namco Filmworks) and the original teaser report
Featured image: Teaser visual for Code Geass: Star Chaser Aspal, via Bandai Namco Filmworks / Anime News Network (©SUNRISE/PROJECT GEASS).
