The following article is an assumption based on what we saw in the trailer for Attack on Titan Season 4. There has been no official confirmation from MAPPA or AOT’s official account about the number of episodes or release dates.

Since the trailer for Attack on Titan Season 4 was launched, we have been going through it like crazy and trying to put out whatever we observed in it. If you haven’t read it yet, you should click the link below to go through the trailer breakdown!

Read: Trailer breakdown for Attack on Titan Season 4

Our assumption for Season 4 of Attack on Titan being released in two cours is based on 2 things, the scenes in the trailer of Season 4 and the time Hajime Isayama, the author of Attack on Titan, will take to end the manga.

If you are aware, you would know that the final season of Attack on Titan will adapt the last two (hopefully) arcs of the manga, namely the Marley Arc (which consists of 16 chapters) and the “War for Paradis Arc” (which has 20+ chapters and is ongoing). Currently 90 chapters of the manga have been covered in 3 seasons of the anime.

Most of the scenes from the trailer of Attack on Titan Season 4 are from the ‘Marley Arc” of the manga (except some scenes at the end, which are taken from chapter 117 & 122). Based on this, it is possible that MAPPA decided to animate the 16 chapters from the Marley arc along with 2-4 chapters from the War of Paradis arc into 10-12 episodes, which would act as the first cour of AOT season 4.

Now, this argument is not foolproof because the production team could have purposely left out the content from the later half of the series. However, till the time we don’t get more visuals (we only have 1 or 2 right now) that reveal the content from “War for Paradis” arc, it’s safe to assume that the anime will be releasing in two cours with the first phase focusing majorly on the Marley Arc.

But is 16-20 chapters content from the manga enough for 10-12 episodes of the anime? Ofcourse it is! In the past Attack on Titan covered The Female Titan arc & The Clash of Titans arc from the manga, which had 16 chapters each, in 24 episodes of season 1 and 2. If MAPPA sticks to a similar pace, they’ll have enough content for 10-12 episodes without fillers.

Also, having two cours would let Isayama take his time in finishing the manga and allow MAPPA to focus on the content that is already available and animate it without worrying about the ending . Isayama had previously hinted that he plans to end the manga in 2020. And with the way the plot is proceeding, the manga will have anywhere between 5-10 chapters at the most, which means it could end by Nov. or Dec. 2020 at the earliest.

Another major benefit of a two cours season is that the production team will have its workload reduced, meaning they could release the first part of Attack on Titan Season 4 late in 2020 or by January 2021.

And once the manga is completed they can focus on animating the rest of the story and come out with a second cour by the end of 2021.

But then, the counter argument to this is that, Isayama could already have told the production committee at MAPPA how the series is going to end and sent them the rough drafts. If that’s the case, then MAPPA will stick to animating the series through the end and come out with 24 episodes at one stretch. This could end up being true, considering that this trailer DOES have few scenes from the War For Paradis arc (especially Reiner and Eren’s fight).

Unless they’ve been diligently working on it for a long time, it would be impossible to release these 24 episodes by fall 2020 and the series obviously would be delayed.

But then these are all speculations and we’d only know how and when the fourth season will release once MAPPA makes it official.

What are your opinions on this? Will Attack on Titan Release in 2 cours? Or will MAPPA release 24 episodes at one go?