
A fan-made sequel to Dragon Ball Z has racked up 3 million views on YouTube, and sent fans into a frenzy of anticipation for the following episodes – if the rest of the series gets funded. The pilot episode of Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope is based on animated special ‘The History of Trunks’, a DBZ sequel that tells the story of (you guessed it!) the young warrior Trunks.
In the words of every fan ever: “It’s better than ‘Dragonball Evolution’!” On the one hand, that’s not saying much, as Dragon Ball Evolution got spectacularly bad reviews. But on the other hand, when a fan-made film is better than one with a Hollywood budget, that’s certainly something to be proud of.
The short film, from creative team Robot Underdog, is entitled Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope, and took two years to make in fairly arduous-sounding conditions: in the words of writer Paris J. Lay, the principle scenes were filmed on location “on top of a mountain”. The 13-minute short introduces Jack Wald as Trunks, and Anton Bex as Gohan. Android 17 is played by Tyler Tackett, and Android 18 by Amy Johnston.
Watch the pilot episode in full here:
The team has also released this other neat video with the choreographer and stunt coordinator, talking about how the fight scenes were made:
It seems the good folks at Robot Underdog have made a generation of fans very happy! The web series is a non-profit adaptation, and fans can ensure the longevity of the series by donating to Robot Underdog via their website.



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