For the past few weeks, the face of Johnny Joestar with Mangekyo Sharingan eyes has felt inescapable on social media, whether you were a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fan or not—after said fans, hyped for the arrival of the anime adaptation’s seventh chapter, Steel Ball Run, found themselves left high and dry when Netflix dropped just a single episode and then refused to say when more was coming (beyond a vague “this year,” eventually). Sharingan Johnny’s days are now either numbered or about to get even more prevalent, because Netflix has finally offered another update in the hopes of getting anime fans to stop yelling at it.
Released early this morning on the Netflix Anime social media account in both English and Japanese, the streamer’s statement confirms a slightly more specific fall 2026 release date for the second part—or “stage,” as they’re known for Steel Ball Run, named as such for the various stages of the titular horse race—of the anime. It also explicitly confirmed that the second stage, unlike the singular episode release of the first, will follow a weekly release schedule, and that going forward the show should follow a split-cour release (i.e., multiple batches of episodes that release over time). Whether or not future cours beyond stage two will also follow a weekly release schedule remains to be seen.
Thank you for all the incredible support for STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The series is currently in production and will be available for everyone to enjoy. We are planning a split‑cour release across the entire run of episodes. The next cour (2nd STAGE) will begin…
— Netflix Anime (@NetflixAnime) April 6, 2026
Netflix has to be very explicit about this, of course, because part of the big controversy about the last JoJo’s series, Stone Ocean—aside from Netflix nabbing exclusive rights to stream the series and then barely promoting it—was that the show adopted a batch release, with three separate blocks of episodes dropping across 2021 and 2022.
When Steel Ball Run dropped its first episode and then went radio silent, fans feared much the same was going to happen, hence the furor of the past couple weeks. Although perhaps now they’ve spammed enough meme images to the point that even Netflix’s studio partners were getting in on the clown show, Netflix is probably at least going to be much more supportive of highlighting each stage of Steel Ball Run‘s release schedule lest they get yelled at again.
“This release schedule is part of our original plan and reflects the wishes of the production committee,” Netflix’s statement reads in part, which kind of feels like trying to pass the buck a bit onto David Production—especially considering Netflix itself was so hesitant to reveal this “original plan” when JoJo’s fans first started getting antsy, and are only now confirming it after all the increased fan pressure. All this could’ve been avoided weeks ago, even if people still ended up being bummed that they’re going to have to wait a while for the second stage!
At least now we know: Steel Ball Run will return to Netflix in fall 2026.
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