With Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero set to premiere this April, the anime film will continue the story of Goku and his friends as they face the latest iteration of a familiar foe. Promo art and teaser trailers have showcased redesigns for many fan-favorite characters, including Gohan and his young daughter Pan, with the latest promo artwork, as well as Goten and Trunks. More than just boasting teenage designs for the two Super Saiyans, however, these two characters' return hints at the debut of a twist on a familiar fused warrior: Gotenks.
Gotenks was introduced in Dragon Ball Z as a composite fighter formed by Goten and Trunks when they performed the Fusion Dance together. Brash and cocky, Gotenks quickly learned how to achieve the Super Saiyan 3 transformation and nearly defeated Super Buu before the time limit on his fusion ran out, leaving Goten and Trunks at Buu's mercy. Gotenks only periodically reappeared throughout Dragon Ball Super and, like Trunks and Goten in the series, was still depicted as a child. Gotenks was ultimately omitted from Dragon Ball Super's Tournament of Power, as Goku and Vegeta felt that he was too reckless to take the high-stakes martial arts showdown seriously. This may change in Super Hero, as a clue in the film's new promo art seems to indicate.
In the promo art, teen Trunks and Goten are seen performing the Fusion Dance together, hinting that they may form a teenage incarnation of Gotenks. Canonically, this is the first time Gotenks will be depicted older than the child that appeared throughout the franchise's history. An adult iteration of Gotenks appeared in the non-canonical anime series Super Dragon Ball Heroes from the Xenoverse timeline. This older Gotenks was much more mature than his younger, main universe counterpart and armed himself with Xeno Trunks' sword while helping the Time Patrol preserve the various timelines and alternate universes.
It is unconfirmed if Gotenks will appear at all in Super Hero, but the warrior would theoretically be stronger than past canonical incarnations. Trunks and Goten are presumably physically stronger as teenagers than they were as children given how much they've grown up, which would naturally make Gotenks more powerful by extension. However, the promo art also reveals that Trunks and Goten are incorrectly performing the Fusion Dance, with their hands on top of the pose failing to properly match up. This suggests the two teens have gotten rusty in performing the dance and could result in an imperfect formation of Gotenks in the film rather than the Super Saiyan 3 that the world needs to protect them.
Dragon Ball Super is poised to bring back the Z Fighters with an all-new adventure and at a point in the franchise's chronology closer to DBZ's epilogue, ten years after the defeat of Kid Buu. With new androids designed by the Red Ribbon Army to seek revenge on Goku and his friends, it's all hands on deck to take on this powerful threat menacing the world. This means a more active role for Goten and Trunks in comparison to them sticking to the sidelines for much of Dragon Ball Super -- and with their return, the potential comeback for Gotenks as audiences have never canonically seen the fused warrior before.
Directed by Tetsuro Kodama, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero opens April 22 in Japan, with a North American release slated for Summer 2022.
