A Certain Magical Index author Kazuma Kamachi revealed in an interview with Newtype that there were initially talks of making the currently airing A Certain Magical Index III a reboot. Because it had been eight years since the last TV anime season, there were worries among the production committee that a continuation of the story would limit the appeal.

According to A Certain Magical Index editor Kazuma Miki, talks about producing a new season had apparently been in motion for "a while," and there had been difficulties with coordinating the timing. He said that after he formed an independent company called Straight Edge in 2016, he was able to get in touch with the companies involved with the Index anime directly, which he claimed "might" have helped propel the talks along.

Miki said that the question of making the new Index anime a reboot or a continuation was a subject of debate right until the very end of the talks. "In the end, we had to put the user experience first," he said. "There are a lot of fans who want to see the entirety of the original Index story adapted, so we made season 3 with that in mind."

The original A Certain Magical Index light novel series ran for 22 volumes. This was followed by a sequel called New Testament: A Certain Magical index, which recently published its 21st volume in October. The first two seasons of the TV anime series adapted the first 13 volumes of the original A Certain Magical Index light novels. A Certain Magical Index III will adapt to the end of the original Index series; there are currently no plans to adapt New Testament.

A TV anime adaptation for the spinoff manga A Certain Scientific Accelerator was also announced recently, as well as a third season for A Certain Scientific Railgun. Miki said that the timing was now right to put all of these anime projects into motion.

A Certain Magical Index III is streaming worldwide outside Asia on Crunchyroll. Funimation will stream the simuldub.

Source: Newtype December 2018 issue