Everything We Know about “Red vs Blue: Zero” So Far

Rooster Teeth’s first and longest running series, Red vs Blue, is coming back soon with a new season!…eventually at some point. It’s hard to imagine the current pandemic not having an impact on the production, but we are also well past the time that the show would normally be premiering. While the date has fluctuated from time to time, RVB has typically started a season in the spring, or at least the first half of the year. The last time it didn’t was all the way back in Season 5, at the end of the Blood Gulch Chronicles, which premiered in October 2006. But even beyond that, this upcoming season has been pretty much shrouded in mystery (not counting one of life’s great mysteries). So, while details are still sparse, let’s go over all the clues we do have and see what we can piece together.

The Title:

This season’s subtitle, Zero, ironically has a lot of implied meaning behind it. Is it a prequel predating the events of the first season? Is it a soft reboot, starting the series over from the ground up? Has it got none of the sugar or calories but still have the same refreshing taste? The point is that it brings to mind a lot of different ideas already, even if they all might be way off from what we’re actually getting. The cast and crew helming it are all total newbies in their positions regarding working on RVB, so we could very well be seeing a very different take on the show’s universe than what’s come before, which would certainly be refreshing for the eighteenth season.

Dear Director:

Other than several PSA episodes we’ve received between February and April, it looks like the titular Reds and Blues will be absent for this season, something that hasn’t been tried before. Though again, if you were ever going to try to make a season without them, the eighteenth season is certainly the time. While we could have probably seen showrunner after showrunner try building on their characters for the remainder of the series, it seems new director Torrian Crawford has his own plans for RVB that look to include a completely original set of characters. Crawford is already a veteran of the RT animation scene, most notably for his work on Death Battle, where he has directed over two dozen episodes of spectacular fights, as well as a handful of episodes from both RWBY and gen:LOCK. If nothing else, this tells us that RVB Zero will be fit to bursting with high octane fights, which has been a staple of the series for nearly a decade now.

A Red By Any Other Name:

Despite having much to say about the director and his body of work, the cast that will be embodying don’t have a bunch to mention about them just yet. As of now, we know that Christian Young, Noel Wiggins, Fiona Nova, and Hannah McCarthy will be principal roles. All four have done media work for Rooster Teeth in some capacity, but this looks to be their first notable voice role for the company. In this sense, they actually share this greenness with the founders of RT when they first began Red vs Blue, as well as the main four of RWBY, who were also amateur actors at the time. This doesn’t really tell us a whole lot about how they’ll be once the season gets rolling, but it’s at least nice to know they’re in good company.

The Plot:

And surprise, the plot of the season is also totally up in the air as of this writing. We’ve seen a few clips to tease us with, all being very heavy on action, which is expected considering that’s Crawford’s bread and butter. The downside, or possibly upside, is that this doesn’t give us much to chew on regarding who is doing said action or why. Of the clips we’ve seen, one features a blue and purple soldier plowing their way through a flurry of mooks, while the other shows a couple red soldiers attacking a giant horned monster carrying flaming swords. Fans have speculated the latter may be connected to “The Great Destroyer” prophecy in some way (despite that turning out to be fake), but it’s hard to say at this point either way. Also of note is that this looks to be RVB’s shortest season yet at only eight episodes, which is surprising given that both Seasons 16 and 17 were already well below the average 19-24 episode average we’re used to. Whether this means longer episode runtimes or not, we’ll have to wait and see.

Why We’re Here:

Despite such minimal information to work on, what’s most clear is that Rooster Teeth is by no means done with RVB any time soon, as well as not just doing what’s expected either. RVB Zero looks to be another ambitious take on the franchise and what it represents for the company, much like Season 14’s anthology was four years ago. Nonetheless, it’s because RT is still willing to bring in people who can breathe passion into the series that fans of the series, including myself, will be there to see it premiere…whenever that happens to be. We might be looking at a summer release at the earliest, maybe even fall if RWBY’s production got delayed, but it’ll hopefully be worth it to make a little purple.