Sword Art Online Progressive Anime Film Reveals New Poster, October 30 Opening

The "Sword Art Online the Movie -Progressive- Aria of a Starless Night Past & Future" panel at Aniplex Online Fest 2021 revealed on Sunday that the anime film will open in Japan on October 30. The panel also debuted a new main visual:

The official English Twitter account for the anime in the U.S. stated on Sunday that "more information regarding the U.S. release will be coming soon!"

Participating theaters throughout Japan will begin selling the second batch of MoviTicke Cards bundled with an A4-sized clear file folder (both featuring the above visual). In addition, fans can instead buy the first ever "MoviTicke Digital Cards" that each serve as a digital voucher, good for one admission to a screening.

Inori Minase is voicing the new character Mito in the film.

Ayako Kawano (unit director on Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic, High School Fleet, The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Prisoners of the Sky) is directing the film at A-1 Pictures, and Kento Toya (Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld, The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of The Commandments) is designing the characters. Yasuyuki Kai is serving as action director, and Yuki Kajiura is returning to compose the music.

Also returning are Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Kirito and Haruka Tomatsu as Asuna in the voice cast.

The anime is based on Reki Kawahara's Sword Art Online: Progressive light novel series. The novel series launched in 2012 as a revised retelling of Kawahara's original Sword Art Online novels. The story depicts Kirito's journey through the floating Aincrad castle from the beginning, floor-by-floor. Yen Press is publishing the Sword Art Online: Progressive novel series in English, as well as two manga adaptations.