Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Walpurgisnacht: Rising is a 2026 Japanese animated dark fantasy action film produced by Shaft based on the 2011 anime television series. It is a sequel to Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion (2013) and was released in Japan on August 28, 2026. The film will be distributed in North America by Aniplex of America.
Premise
In a seemingly peaceful world, Homura Akemi faces a dangerous new enemy linked to the witch Walpurgisnacht, forcing her to reckon with her past decisions and decide what she will do to keep Madoka Kaname safe.
Production In 2015, the Madoka Magica staff released a short concept movie released in two versions at the Madogatari exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka for Shaft's 40th anniversary. Akiyuki Shinbo, Ume Aoki, Gekidan Inu Curry, and Junichirou Taniguchi returned in their respective positions, while Yukihiro Miyamoto took on the role of unit director. According to Shaft's president, Mitsutoshi Kubota, the concept film was meant to launch the start of a new Madoka Magica project in which the short's ideas would serve as the base.
It was not until the 10th anniversary event held on April 25, 2021, that a sequel movie to Rebellion was announced, titled . In August 2023, additional information about the film was revealed at Aniplex Online Fest 2023 on September 10. It released an official trailer and was originally scheduled to be released in 2024, however, was later delayed to Q1 2025, not released on that period either. It was to premiere in February 2026 but later delayed to August 28 due to production circumstances. Shinbo, Miyamoto, Kajiura, Taniguchi, and Urobuchi were all announced to be returning in their respective roles, while only one half of Gekidan Inu Curry, Doroinu, would return as the alternate space designer.
With the announcement of the work, Atsuhiro Iwakami apologized to fans for the long wait saying that it took longer than expected to solidify plans, and Kubota specified that it was difficult getting it to a point where they thought "This is it!" Kubota also noted the difference in production methods over the 10-year gap, saying that all of the drawing at Shaft was now being done digitally as well as the commonplaceness of 3DCG animation (and Shaft developing its own CG-specific department). Lead writer Gen Urobuchi also revealed on Twitter that the script for the movie was written after he finished working on Kamen Rider Gaim, and before work had begun on Thunderbolt Fantasy. Unlike the film trilogy and the series, Takahiro Kishida is no longer credited as a character designer, the role of which is being entirely headed by Taniguchi, and Kubota mentioned that he was refining the designs. While Taniguchi returned from the previous installments in the series, including Shaft's adaptation of the Magia Record mobile game, the animation designs were created with fundamentally different base designs. According to Aniplex producer Tatsuya Ishikawa, Aoki's style had changed since the beginning of the series and even since Magia Record. The staff also intended to make the characters look more like the concept art, so Aoki redesigned the draft designs from scratch. Selema Terez and Zi Ding Xiang, two new characters, originated from Shinbo's concepts with design elements influenced by Urobuchi's ideas. Design progress for the film progressed gradually throughout the years, with Madoka's costume design for the 2015 concept movie, originally produced for the Shaft Madogatari 40th Anniversary Event, becoming an accidental prototype to her eventual design in the film.
Urobuchi started work on the script in 2014, the year after Rebellion was released but found difficulty coming up with a scenario as he had "no ideas" for what to do next with the series. Hearing about his predicament, Doroinu of Gekidan Inu Curry presented Urobuchi with sketches and concept designs that laid out a variety of possible characters, story elements, and the like, which Urobuchi believed there to be enough of to use as a general base. Rather than creating his own story from scratch, he thought it would be interesting to take another creator's ideas and to both structure and organize a story out of those core concepts rather than trying to come up with the foundations himself. He thought writing the screenplay was an easy task and instead had more difficulty deciding on how to condense the plethora of information he chose to work with and whether or not he should split the film idea into two parts. Urobuchi considers himself to have been a writer more so in charge of putting together a compilation of ideas that weren't his rather than creating his own story. Like with Rebellion, once Urobuchi finished the screenplay, Shinbo asked him if he could revise it to instead focus more on Madoka as the central character rather than Homura. Due to scheduling conflicts and Urobuchi having no ideas for how to meet Shinbo's requests, he gave permission for the staff to use or revise the screenplay as they saw fit. Around 2021, after considering rewriting the script and making a new version entirely, the staff decided to use Urobuchi's original script with revisions. According to him, the first half of the script was mostly kept as he had written it, while the second half received more significant revisions. Doroinu spearheaded the majority of the revisions for the film's second half with changes like Walpurgisnacht's background being complimented by Urobuchi for both expanding on and simplifying his work. During production, Urobuchi stayed relatively hands-off from the project, but attended some of the voice recording sessions and discussed lines of dialogue and certain performances with sound director Youta Tsuruoka. Similarities between the film and Magia Record were noted, like the existence of uwasa (rumors) and narrative devices like "confidential conversations", which Urobuchi explained as the result of utilizing Doroinu's notebook. Despite the film releasing nearly nine years after the mobile game, which Doroinu was also involved with as well as being the chief director of its anime adaptation, said details in Walpurgisnacht predate the conception of Magia Record itself, with the shared aspects between them simply being Doroinu's core ideas. Likewise, the addition of the two new characters predated Magia Record as well, and thus Urobuchi did not feel worried about how they compared.
With the script in place, a storyboard artist was needed. According to Iwakami, Kubota watched the Revue Starlight Movie directed by Tomohiro Furukawa and was impressed with the work which led to Furukawa being asked to storyboard the movie.
For the music, Kajiura noted that she was essentially given free reign with what to compose besides basic instructions for certain parts that asked for "upbeat" music and the like. Having watched a version of the incomplete film during the scoring process, she intended to use her own interpretation of the work as the basis for her music. Rather than compose emotionally-driven music, Kajiura paid more attention to "not giving the audience answers" or "hints to the answers" through emotionally evocative music, and she also meant to allow silence at points in the film for the audience to ponder, a process which she said would have been easier if she was simply instructed to make beautiful music. When she eventually handed the music to the production staff, she intended to make any corrections they deemed necessary, but was given the OK. The theme song for the film is by FictionJunction, which was released on September 2, 2026.
Miyamoto humorously shared a similar perspective on his role as director to Urobuchi's role as scriptwriter, saying he wasn't so much of a creator as he was a compiler of other people's creations for the film. According to him, early on in the film's development, Shinbo had the idea of using 3D to model the town and instead of using a physical barrier to physically surround it, make it like an island geographically separated from the outside world. Doroinu also had the idea of rendering Walpurgis entirely in 3D and then touching it up to look like paper cut-out animation.
Regarding the return to the main franchise after 13 years, and with Magia Record as a spin-off series, Shinbo said that he and the staff weren't concerned with making it "Madoka-like." While he noted that other creators may consciously develop ideas that constitute being "Madoka-like" if they intend to make their own projects like Madoka, as the creators and staff of the project, the Madoka staff make it "normally." Aniplex publicity producer Satomi Takahashi noted that the atmospheric prioritization was less about following that constitution of what is or isn't "Madoka-like", and instead focusing on making something "new."
Reception
See also List of films featuring time loops
Notes Works cited
General notes
References
External links Official website