Dr. Stone is coming back for the part of the story that plays out after the ending. The “Stone Fes. 2026” event announced that production has been green-lit on Dr. Stone Terraforming, a sequel anime adapting the “Terraforming” story from the 27th volume of Riichirou Inagaki and Boichi’s manga. That arc is set after the main narrative and picks up events that the original anime never reached.
The event did not give a premiere date or name a studio.
What Terraforming actually is
The main Dr. Stone manga ran from March 2017 to March 2022, and its final stretch covered Senku’s push to rebuild civilization and reach the cause of humanity’s petrification. Terraforming sits after all of that. The announcement places it in volume 27, which is outside the main run and reads more like an epilogue story than a continuation of the central conflict.
Naming the anime Dr. Stone Terraforming rather than a fifth season is telling. The series already wrapped its numbered seasons, so this reads as a bonus chapter getting its own adaptation instead of an extension of the main timeline.
How the anime got here
The first Dr. Stone television anime premiered in July 2019, with Crunchyroll streaming it as it aired and Funimation handling an English dub. It reached Toonami in August 2019.
Dr. Stone: Stone Wars, the second season, followed in January 2021. Crunchyroll streamed it worldwide outside Asia and Funimation dubbed it, and it hit Toonami that May. A one-hour special, Dr. Stone: Ryusui, aired in July 2022.
The third season, Dr. Stone: New World, split into two cours. The first premiered in April 2023 and ran for 11 episodes; the second arrived in October 2023 and closed with its 22nd episode in December of that year. Crunchyroll carried both parts and produced an English dub.
Dr. Stone: Science Future was billed as the fourth and final season of the main anime. Its first cours debuted in January 2025, the second premiered on July 10, 2025 and ended on September 25, 2025, and the season finished with a third part on June 25.
The people behind the manga
Boichi, known for Sun-Ken Rock, and Riichirou Inagaki, who wrote Eyeshield 21, launched Dr. Stone in Weekly Shonen Jump in March 2017. Viz Media published it in print and digitally, and MANGA Plus carried it in English as well. Both creators have stayed connected to the franchise since the manga ended.
Why it matters
A green light without a date is a soft announcement, and that is exactly what this is. Stone Fes. is a fan-facing event, so the news confirms intent more than it confirms a schedule. The practical read is that the franchise is not done on screen even after Science Future was framed as the finale, which gives the manga’s post-ending material a chance to be animated rather than left on the page.
Whether this lands as a film, a special or a short series is still open. The “Terraforming” content is limited, so a single-shot format would fit it better than a full cour, though the announcement did not commit to either.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Dr. Stone Terraforming announcement visual, via the Dr. Stone anime’s official channels / MyAnimeList.
