Up until yesterday, there was a rumor going around that the third season of Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan anime would be taking a break after the 12th episode. NHK didn’t have any Attack on Titan episodes listed after episode 12 which caused people to wonder if it was going to be a split cours.
After Sunday’s episode, those rumors were confirmed when the anime announced that Season 3 Part 2 would begin airing in April 2019. This caught many fans by surprise as the third season of the anime was originally announced to have 24 episodes. This led many to believe that the anime would run for six months straight before calling it a day until a fourth season could be announced. Wit Studio stayed tight-lipped on the matter and it was only when people noticed Attack on Titan missing from it’s regular television schedule that people become suspicious.
While sudden announcements are not new to the anime and manga industry; as many series will often have their end announced about one to three weeks before it actually happens, this announcement seemed to come out of left field. Despite the split cours, Wit Studio hasn’t made any formal announcements as to why the season is being split. One could only assume that with the higher production quality that they are known for and the smaller time gap between seasons two and three, that they simply didn’t have enough time to produce 24 episodes. Another way to assume would be to suggest that season three was originally scheduled to be 12 episodes and, at the last minute, they decided to make it 24 and weren’t prepared for the extra workload.
Or it could just be a simple scheduling issue with tv stations. There could be a hundred reasons but none of them change the fact that fans will need to wait six more months to see the conclusion of season 3.
A key visual for the second part of season 3 was revealed after the 49th overall episode aired:
