Michelle Topham 
The folks at the Sword Art Online franchise have just revealed on their official Twitter account that there is a new, original Sword Art Online movie currently in production.
Along with the announcement, they also released a short teaser promising more details about the new movie soon.
A movie that will be the fourth one to be set in the Sword Art Online world.
The new movie in the popular anime franchise will come hot on the tail of Sword Art Online -Progressive- Shcerzo of Deep Night, the latest film in the franchise and one that is currently showing in theaters around Japan.
Anime franchise based on Sword Art Online light novels
The Sword Art Online anime series and films are based on the light novels written by Japanese author Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec.
They tell the story of protagonists Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki, from when they meet in a virtual reality MMORPG the pair get trapped in, through their subsequent lives in other MMORPG worlds.
During that time, they also fall in love.
There are currently 27 volumes of the light novel series out in Japanese, with 25 volumes in English so far.
The follow up series, Sword Art Online: Progressive has eight volumes out in both Japanese and English, with various other volumes available for spin off side stories written by other authors.
Yen Press publishes the novels in English. They also publish the manga adaptation of the story.
Yen Press has this to say about where the original Sword Art Online novel began:
In the year 2022, gamers rejoice as Sword Art Online – a VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) like no other – debuts, allowing players to take full advantage of the ultimate in gaming technology: NerveGear, a system that allows users to completely immerse themselves in a wholly realistic gaming experience.
But when the game goes live, the elation of the players quickly turns to horror as they discover that, for all its amazing features, SAO is missing one of the most basic functions of any MMORPG – a log-out button.
Now trapped in the virtual world of Aincrad, their bodies held captive by NerveGear in the real world, users are issued a chilling ultimatum: conquer all one hundred floors of Aincrad to regain your freedom.
But in the warped world of SAO, “game over” means certain death – both virtual and real…
At the moment, the only information we have about the fourth Sword Art Online movie is the teaser below, and that it will be an original story.
Watch that, and check back to Baozi Buns as soon as more details are forthcoming.
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