Animation director Takeshi Honda ( Neon Genesis Evangelion , Rebuild of Evangelion films) stated in an interview with the UK Anime Network in October that the fourth Rebuild of Evangelion film is in progress.

"We're actually working on the new Evangelion film right now," Honda commented. "We're working hard and it'll come out eventually, so thanks for all of your patience - please continue to be patient, because it's going to be the last episode."

At another point in the interview he expressed his hope that Evangelion will end properly before he retires, because drawing is getting physically more difficult as he gets older.

Director Hideaki Anno commented during an interview in July that he felt he could return to Evangelion now that he has finished directing Shin Godzilla . He had previously commented in 2014 that he was thinking of returning to Evangelion after doing something different, and mentioned there might be a four to six year gap between the third and fourth films.

The title for the final Evangelion film was announced back in 2012 as Evangelion Shin Gekijōban :||, or Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 . The ":||" at the end of the Japanese title is meant to be the symbol used in music to denote repetition after reaching the end of a measure.

The first three films in the tetralogy, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone , Evangelion: 2.0 You Can [Not] Advance , and Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo , debuted in 2007, 2009, and 2012 respectively.