Yuri!!! on Ice movie canceled after 7 years in production

The long gestating Yuri!!! on Ice movie has officially been canceled. The movie was announced back in 2017, though news on the production front has been scant since. After a short teaser in 2018 and a note in 2020, the production team finally announced the cancelation on X this Friday.

Thank you very much for always supporting Yuri!!! On Ice.

Regarding the postponed release of Yuri!!! On Ice the movie: Ice Adolescence, we have tome to the decision to unfortunately cancel its production.

We deeply apologize for not being able to meet the expectations of all those who have been waiting and have continued to support us throughout these yers.

The production committee and staff have been in constant discussions to create and to deliver the movie, but due to various circumstances, we have had to make the difficult decision to stop production.

We sincerely apologize to everyone who has been anticipating gets release and thank you once again for your continued support.

Yuri!!! on Ice premiered in 2016 and ran for 12 episodes. It follows Yuri Katsuki, the titular anxious figure skater (and also winner of Polygon’s inaugural Who Would Win Week bracket in 2022), in his quest to win the Figure Skating Grand Prix. After a devastating loss, Yuri initially retires, but when his figure skating idol, the talented and very handsome Victor Nikiforov, shows up at his door and offers to be his coach, Yuri takes a chance. Along the way, romantic feelings blossom between the two.

The movie was supposedly going to highlight Victor’s teenage years. The anime never really dove into his backstory, but it was pretty clear that his adolescence was full of hard training. He’s totally chill with leaving everything behind to follow Yuri, so there must not have been a lot keeping him in Russia.

But with the movie officially canceled, any glimpses into Victor’s past will have to come from theories. We’ll always have fanfiction — and the official illustration released by the production team in 2022, where Yuri and Viktor are tenderly sitting together on the sidelines of a competition.

All episodes of Yuri!!! on Ice are available on Crunchyroll.

This post was originally published on Polygon