Gen
Urobuchi is world-renowned for traumatizing the audience with dark twists and
fates, but this time the handbrake had to be activated in time. The acclaimed
writer revealed in a recent interview that the highly anticipated film Puella
Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Walpurgisnacht Rising originally had a much
more cruel and heartbreaking ending, which had to be modified during production
to offer a greater sense of salvation and hope.
Be
careful, in the following text there could be spoilers for Puella Magi's new
film Madoka Magica.
The
project, which serves as a direct sequel to the 2013 feature film Rebellion,
was released in Japanese theaters on August 28, 2026 after several years of
waiting and delays. Urobuchi explained that he agreed to write the script
almost a decade ago, shortly after finishing his work on Kamen Rider Gaim.
At that time, Gekidan Inu Curry's creative team presented him with a notebook
full of ideas and visual concepts that contained about 90 percent of the key
elements of the plot, leaving him with the task of structuring the story and
writing the final climax.
However,
after reviewing the first draft, director Akiyuki Shinbo felt that the proposal
was too dark even by the usual standards of the franchise. Although at some
point it was considered to bring in another writer to redo everything from
scratch, the team decided to return to Urobuchi's scheme by adjusting the
outcome. The screenwriter himself admitted that his natural habit has always
been to eliminate characters and leave them out of the narrative, but he
thanked the team for lowering the intensity of the suffering, ensuring that the
final version is much more bearable without losing the emotional impact.
About
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Puella
Magi Madoka Magica
is an original franchise of the magical girl genre created by the Magica
Quartet collective, composed of director Akiyuki Shinbo, screenwriter Gen
Urobuchi, character designer Ume Aoki, and animation studio Shaft. Originally
aired in 2011, the series revolutionized Japanese animation by subverting the
genre's traditional tropes with a dark narrative centered on Machiavellian
contracts, witches, and inevitable tragedies.
The plot
follows Madoka Kaname and Sayaka Miki, two high school students who cross paths
with Kyubey, a mysterious creature who offers to grant them any wishes in
exchange for becoming magical girls and fighting fearsome entities known as
witches. However, the arrival of the mysterious exchange student Homura Akemi
will reveal the bitter price behind that pact and the endless cycle of despair
to which they are condemned.
