Today Bandai released another tiny new look at Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, the next major entry in the venerable mecha franchise born out of an unprecedented partnership between the studio and Neon Genesis Evangelion powerhouse Khara. But within the tiny flashes of new imagery there’s some very interesting looks at a new character that seem to give us a better idea of just what the new show is about… and the character might not be so new at all.
The new trailer for the theatrical compilation release of GQuuuuuuX‘s opening episodes, The Beginning—set to roll out in Japanese theaters next week on January 17—gives us a few more looks at the main characters of the series, as well as the titular mobile suit. But one new character stands out: an older gentleman with blue-white hair, wearing an olive suit and some very intriguing stylization on his shirt and collar. The uniform has distinct parallels to the formal military wear of one of the primary factions in the original Mobile Suit Gundam and its successors—the secessionist space colony Zeon—and between that and the man’s design, there’s definitely some evocation of a particular, intriguing character from the 1979 classic: Challia Bull, an important figure in Gundam‘s early explorations of one of its most fascinating concepts, newtypes.
◤《本予告》解禁◢
劇場先行版『機動戦士Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-』
1月17日（金）の公開まであと7日！
皆さまぜひ劇場にてご覧ください！
▼劇場情報https://t.co/6b1RjC8iIt#KenshiYonezu#GQuuuuuuX #ジークアクス pic.twitter.com/tSnxdapjsv
— 機動戦士Gundam GQuuuuuuX（ジークアクス） (@G_GQuuuuuuX) January 9, 2025
Introduced in the 39th episode of the original series “The Newtype: Challia Bull,” Bull is a senior Zeon officer summoned by the principality’s military commander Ghiren Zabi to be tested as one of the fabled newtypes. Believed to be a natural evolution of humans after their migration into space—having developed extrasensory enhanced perception skills and, in some cases, latent psionic abilities—newtypes were a late addition to the narrative of the original Gundam. The word itself is only first uttered a handful of episodes before Bull’s introduction, as various parties begin to believe that Gundam‘s main protagonist and antagonist, Amuro Ray and Char Aznable (as well as the latter’s mysterious consort, Lalah Sune), might be some of the earliest developing newtypes as the war between the Earth Federation and Zeon rages on.
But exploration of the idea was short-lived: Bull is killed in a battle with Amuro in the same episode he’s introduced in, and Gundam itself ended just a handful of episodes later, its future at the time uncertain. It was only in successor material after Gundam‘s future as a franchise is secured that the newtype concept was explored further, until it became a defining touchstone of narratives in its beloved primary continuity, the “Universal Century”—the setting of the first Gundam and its direct successors Zeta and ZZ Gundam, as well as a litany of other shows and movies from the franchise—both in how it explores humankind’s capacity to evolve better understanding of itself away from the struggles of interstellar conflict, and the tragedy of newtypes’ exploitation at the hands of military powers the ruling classes to perpetuate the cycles of that conflict.
Gundam as a franchise is no stranger to echoing elements of the UC in the myriad, often unconnected, alternate universes that exist across the series. Many shows in the series are often in conversation with ideas first explored in the Universal Century, like the concept of the newtype and humanity’s spacebound evolution, or offer their own versions of its story despite not being in the same continuity, like After War Gundam X or Gundam SEED, or even the recent Witch From Mercury. Just as many borrow elements of design language from them either just for aesthetic parallels or to connect themselves distantly to the events of those primary series. GQuuuuuuX, for as little as we’ve seen of it, is no exception: the main suit wields an axe weapon not unlike the “heat hawk” wielded by Zakus in the original Gundam, and in both this new trailer and the prior announcement footage there’s been a mono-eyed police mobile suit that borrows a lot of design language from the Zaku itself as well. So it wouldn’t too surprising if this mysterious figure was a new character intended to be a parallel to Challia Bull in either design or character—just like how Gundam loves itself a Char Clone, thematic and design parallels of one of its most beloved figures, across various iterations of the franchise.
But there’s also an intriguing possibility raised by this parallel—this figure might actually be some form of Bull himself, rather than just a stand-in. When GQuuuuuuX was first revealed, an early Italian-language version of the series’ promotional website released (and then quickly retracted) a brief plot synopsis for the series that teased that the show itself is not an alternate Gundam universe, but an alternate timeline: a version of the events of the Universal Century where Zeon defeats the Earth Federation in the One Year War. If that is ultimately what GQuuuuuuX is doing, then there’s a distinct chance this character is a version of Bull that survives his encounter with Amuro, and that GQuuuuuuX might have even more to say about his role in the awakening of newtypism in this version of the narrative rather than leaving him to his hastily doomed fate from the original series.
Gundam chronology is vast and complex, but the series has never tried to do something like an alternative timeline like this (there have been various games and manga that explore the idea, but never one of the primary anime entries). It’d be fitting for a show announced for the series’ 45th anniversary year in 2025 to be the one that tackles re-imagining the Universal Century like this—and if it does, we can’t wait to see what opportunity it takes with characters from the original series, like Challia Bull or otherwise, as it charts its own spin on this beloved story.
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