In the ‘Evangelion’ franchise there are characters that cannot be absent in the most critical moments and one of them is, without a doubt, Shinji Ikari, the protagonist of Hideaki Anno’s work.
Despite this, Anno himself revealed that for a moment the possibility of carrying out a project without the boy who must get on the robot to start the action was raised, in a special event of ‘Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time ‘.
In this, the main production team met to celebrate with the public in a movie theater that the film has exceeded 9.99 billion yen at the box office with the sale of 6.54 million tickets.
It is in this scenario where Anno revealed his previous plans, in which we would see the 14 years that passed without Shinji, giving up on the idea that fans would find a movie strange without the protagonist.
Let’s talk about Hideaki Anno’s special project
Although it will no longer see the light of day, the project the director devised is one of the most interesting the tetralogy could have contained, showing us the fall of Gendo Ikari and Fuyutsuki in Nerv.
With two important pieces out of the game, Kaworu would take command and his assistant would be Ryouji Kaji, a part of the story that was discarded with the creation of ‘Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo’.
It is the third film in the saga, created for Shinji to remain in history, with which Anno dissuaded himself from this idea, but who knows what the great director of the world of anime may bring us in the future.
Take a look at Hideaki Anno’s words below and thanks to Somos Kudasai for the translation.
“I had planned to do a project over the past fourteen years, where Shinji would not appear at all. I thought it would be awkward if the main character of the franchise didn’t appear, so we skipped these plans. So, I started working with ‘3.0 You Can (Not) Redo’, where Shinji does appear. The alternate project is not detailed, but the story is ready.
In the fourteen years between the events, Gendo Ikari and Fuyutsuki lost their privileged positions in NERV. After this, Kaworu Nagisa took the position of commander. His assistant was Ryouji Kaji, and this story is part of the feature film preview. “
