‘Doraemon: Nobita’s Little Star Wars’ delayed to 2022

The remake for the theatrical anime film, Doraemon: Nobita’s Little Star Wars, is further pushed back for a spring 2022 release due to the COVID-19.

The film was supposed to be in theaters last March 5, however, due to COVID-19, it was reported back in January that the film was delayed to an unspecified date.

Over the weekend, the official website revealed that the film will be released in spring next year, which is around March to April.

FuRyu, the Japanese video game company, also announced that the Doraemon video game based on the anime film for Nintendo Switch will be delayed to an unspecified date. Similar to the film, the upcoming Nintendo Switch game was slated for a March 5, 2021 release.

The film’s premise follows the story of Nobita who picks up a tiny spaceship in which a small-sized humanoid alien named Papi comes out. Papi came from a planet called Pirika and is on the run from the evil PCIA army. Doraemon and his friends find a way to play together with Pirika with the gadget "Small Light” and shrink themselves.

However, the fun was abruptly interrupted when a whale-shaped battleship came to Earth and attacked Japan. Papi blames himself and tries to fight back. Thus, Doraemon, Nobita, Papi and their friends leave planet Earth to go to Pirika to save Papi’s home.

Doraemon: Nobita’s Little Star Wars 2021, the 41st film in the franchise, is directed by Shin Yamaguchi and features animation production by Shin-Ei Animation and Shirogumi.