Back in 2021, there was a Final Fantasy IX cartoon in the works, but the original studio, Paris-based Cyber Group, went kaput and the whole project kind of got forgotten.
Forgotten, yes. Cancelled, not really: according to French magazine Écran Total (via RPG Site), the whole thing got picked up again — this time, by Euro Visual studios — and there’s aim for a 2028 release. Evidently, Japanese publisher and Final Fantasy creator and owner, Square Enix, will handle oversight.
A Final Fantasy IX cartoon?
Yes, really. While fans have been asking for a remake of the actual, 2000-released game of the original PlayStation, what we’re getting, apparently, is a Final Fantasy IX cartoon, although this is looking more and more like an expanded project of sorts.
This is because the new project won’t follow the original story, instead taking a small thread of it and construct a narrative of its own: this time, it will be all about the Black Mages — we won’t risk spoilering a 25 year old game, but players of the original title will know how those characters are a major part of the plot.
The Final Fantasy IX cartoon even has a synopsis ready: “Mel, Kolm, Luciola, Théa, Fala, and Doc, children of the hero Bibi, are the last black mages of the four continents,” the description reads. “Today, they live happily in the city of Alexandria, guarded by its rather friendly, though sometimes very curious, inhabitants. Unfortunately, this peaceful existence was not to last… One day, Kolm discovers Mel, frozen like a statue, in the inn where he works. Could this be the tragic legacy of their father catching up with them?”
Don’t get your hopes up, though, if you’re expecting something more adult-y. Several reports in the past have outlined this as a 6-13 age range, so the Final Fantasy IX cartoon will probably follow simpler, easier-to-accompany plotlines instead of the mess ball of convoluted details Square Enix is known for.
The show’s format will be episodic, with 13, 22-minute-long episodes.
However, this “expanded look” is exactly how the Final Fantasy VII Remake came to be, soooo…
Cool, but what about that remake?
On the other side of news, a Final Fantasy IX remake has seemingly been put on ice as of November 2025 — that’s the last time we had news on that front and even that is stretching, as “news” about such a project have never been confirmed officially.
To be fair, the first time we heard (consistently, not a throwaway rumor) about a Final Fantasy IX remake was during a gigantic NVIDIA data leak back in June. A security flaw on the company’s GeForce Now cloud gaming platform has allowed gamers to see a bunch of listed games that would come around the service — including some that were not announced back then: Ivalice Chronicles was one such case, and Final Fantasy IX Remake was another.
As we all know, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles has not only been announced, but released back in late September to raving reviews.
However, back in November, notorious-yet-reliable leaker “NateTheHate” stated that the project was “put on ice” and gamers should not expect Square Enix to take up on it anytime soon. The company itself would inadvertently fan the flames of speculation a little earlier than that, posting an image of Final Fantasy IX’s co-protagonist, Zidane Tribal, with a quote about helping people.
To be fair, Square Enix does this all the time in order to keep the majority of the franchise’s games fresh in the minds of fans through social media, but given the timing of the posting, people did complain/demand/plead for a Final Fantasy IX remake once more.
