The highly anticipated "Sword Art Online" Season 3 may be pushed back but its fans are in for a different treat.
It was announced by Variety, that the SAO television rights has been acquired by Skydance Media and they plan to produce a live action television series. In the report, Skydance "has put the potential series on the fast-track with "Terminator Genisys" scribe Laeta Kalogridis penning the pilot."
The official statement from Skydance Media CEO David Ellison: "At Skydance we are in the business of world-building and SAO is a massive pop-culture phenomenon from which we plan to launch a full-scale and wide-ranging set of live action franchise extensions across our business verticals, beginning with television. We look forward to working alongside Laeta, Reki Kawahara, and the teams at KADOKAWA and Aniplex to build out a deeply immersive new universe of SAO in an authentic way that honors its well-established fan base around the globe."
It also gained the blessing of SAO author Reki Kawahara: "I am excited and moved that 'Sword Art Online' will be adapted into a live action series by the highly respected Skydance Media. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation and gratitude to everyone involved in this project, and to the fans all over the world who have so generously and enthusiastically supported SAO."
This is an exciting time for "Sword Art Online" as the live action series has become a top priority for Skydance, which is also involved in various film and TV projects including the upcoming Jack Reacher sequel "Never Go Back" which stars Tom Cruise.
The big question for anime fans is whether these new developments will affect the release date of Season 3, as the announcement did not mention it. Thus, for its legion of fans, the only official offering that they can anticipate for next year is the Animated Movie which is scheduled for release in Spring 2017 according to its official website.
"Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale" will feature a new original story from Reki Kawahara. Thus, the continuation of the anime storyline is still uncertain at this point. It is speculated that with the movie and live action series in the works, the release date might be pushed to early 2018.