Overlord is one of the isekai series that have flooded the Japanese market in recent times. In short, its protagonist is a man who plays a lich called Momonga in a MMORPG. Said individual presides over one of the strongest guilds in the game, which even managed to create its own dungeon filled with evil NPCs called the Great Tomb of Nazarick during its hey-day. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago, which is why the man is the sole member of his guild logged into the game when its server shuts down.
However, when the server shuts down, the man wasn’t logged out but instead transported to a fantasy world. Moreover, Nazarick has been brought along with him, while its inhabitants have been turned into full-fledged people whose personalities are as wicked as one would expect based on the write-ups provided to them by their creators. From this starting point, Momonga sets out to explore the fantasy world in which he has found himself, seeking to find out what happened, make sure that Nazarick remains safe, and see if his guild-mates have been brought to the fantasy world as well.
Like a lot of isekai series, Overlord started out as a web novel. Eventually, it became popular enough to be turned into a light novel series, which in turn, has become popular enough for the franchise to secure a manga as well as an anime. Currently, the Overlord anime has had three seasons produced by Madhouse, which have covered 9 of the 13 light novel volumes that have been released so far. Due to this, it is natural for people to wonder about a hypothetical fourth season, particularly since Seasons 2 and 3 came out within a short time of one another.
What Do We Know about Season 4 of Overlord?
Season 4 of Overlord has not been confirmed at this point in time. However, considering the numbers for the Overlord anime as well as the Overlord light novels, it seems probable that said season will happen at some point in time. As a result, the bigger issue is when it will happens.
With that said, a Season 4 might not happen for a while, not because there isn’t consumer interest but because there are various challenges that need to be overcome before it can be made. In short, the Overlord light novels have a serious issue in that they don’t necessarily follow chronological order. Instead, they like to revisit the same scenes from different perspectives, thus providing more information in the process. Meanwhile, the Overlord anime does follow chronological order, thus creating a problem in the process.
Simply put, the people behind the Overlord anime can’t go about putting things into chronological order for their adaptation without having access to the source material that needs to be rearranged. Unfortunately, they need more of the source material than usual for the upcoming segment because it is a longer-than-normal narrative arc. Even worse, the author of the Overlord light novels hasn’t always been perfect about making his writing deadlines, meaning that the whole thing is a case of complications compounded by complications.
Still, a Season 4 is bound to happen at some point in time. It won’t be now, but it seems probable that the wait won’t be more than a small number of years at the most, which should be more than enough time for the light novels to pull ahead. In fact, it will be interesting to see how long the Overlord anime will last in the long run, seeing as how the author of the Overlord light novels has stated that he wants to end the series at around Volume 20 even though he has ideas for more than that.
Final Thoughts
Once more information comes about Season 4 of Overlord, it is bound to spread with lightning speed. Meanwhile, interested individuals might want to check out the Overlord light novels as well as the Overlord manga. Currently, the ninth volume of the Overlord light novels is set to be released in English in January of 2019, while the eighth volume of the Overlord manga out of a total of ten so far has just seen its English release. For that matter, there are plenty of other series to choose from out there as well, meaning that interested individuals should have no lack of entertainment options.
