Fans are now wondering when Sword Art Online Season 4 will be out after the end of Season 3, Sword Art Online: Alicization War of Underworld. As viewers waited for about four years to see the third installment, would the show have a long hiatus again?
The series' author, Reki Kawahara, teased he would be working on a "bigger arc," called Sword Art Online: Unital Ring. Currently, this line has three published volumes, and, according to HITC, it may be the next storyline for Season 4.
However, with the announcement of Sword Art Online: Progressive, the works for a new season may be pushed back. The anime's official Twitter page announced the coming of a new anime series.
It will be a six-volume light novel series that will tell the story of Aincard. With Progressive's coming, Kawahara may now have ample time to write the Unital Ring arc, which is probably the "last big story" in the series.
However, A-1 Pictures director Manabu Ono earlier revealed the studio is "planning to adapt the entire Sword Art Online series," meaning all of the materials will be soon seen on TV. So, with Ono and Kawahara's revelations, they seem to subtly confirm the coming of Sword Art Online Season 4.
As a new season seems to be on the plan, the next question is when it will be out. Per Monster and Critics, it is all up to the creator himself, Kawahara. Season 3 had four cours, which featured the whole Alicization arc.
One cour is equivalent to three months airing, so four cours account to a full year. However, Sword Art Online Season 3 was "not aired consecutively."
So, predicting Sword Art Online Season 4's release date is quite hard without knowning the total number of volumes Unital Ring has. If it will have ten volumes like Alicization, Kawahara may complete the whole story arc by 2023.
That is if he manages to release two books per year. The direct continuation of the Unital Ring story was out on Dec. 10, 2019.
Unital Ring 3 was then out in May 2020, while Unital Ring 4 would be out in December 2020. As it took years before an anime could be fully developed, the earliest possible release date of Sword Art Online: Season 4 was in 2024 or later.
If the final story arc would be shorter, it would also affect the anime's schedule. But, if Kawahara only managed to release one book per year, it would be a long wait before fans would finally see Sword Art Online: Season 4.
