Two of the Z-Warriors – Goten and Kid Trunks – may be barely recognizable if and when they return in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Neither of these characters are confirmed to be around, but both are likely to appear in some capacity. Given that the movie is expected to have more “slice of life” moments than its predecessor, it makes sense that the children of the two main characters will have a presence.
Thus far, Toei Animation has only revealed the inclusion of four existing Dragon Ball characters. Aside from Goku, there’s Piccolo, Pan, and Krillin. Artwork for the movie has shown off slight design changes for Krillin and Piccolo, with Krillin receiving a new police uniform and a white color to his eyes, and the pink on Piccolo’s arms being replaced with yellow. Of the three, the character who’s been changed the most is Pan. When she was last seen, she was just a toddler. Now though, she’s Kindergarten age and dressed in a school uniform.
There’s a good chance that Pan won’t be the only character to get an all-new look in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Her appearance is indicative of a three-to-four-year time jump that must have occurred between Dragon Ball Super: Broly and the new movie. That much time passing means that Goten and Trunks should join her in getting complete redesigns. After all, changes to their characters have been overdue for quite some time now. It’s important to note that the two young half-Saiyans still look the same as they did in Dragon Ball Z’s Buu Saga. At the time, Goten and Trunks were 7 and 8 years old respectively. The time skip between Dragon Ball Super and the periods in between sagas added a total of six years to their ages.
When Dragon Ball Super ended, the two were 13 and 14 and years old. With that being the case, they were already deserving of redesigns, and Super Hero taking place three or four years after the show’s conclusion will make this a necessity. By this point, both characters should be in their late teens, which is why Goten and Trunks keeping the personalities and appearances of eight-year-old children simply won’t work. They should be about the same age that Gohan was when he gained his Ultimate form and fought Buu. With such a significant time skip coming, the Dragon Ball franchise may not be able to avoid maturing Goten and Trunks any longer.
If Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero does indeed reintroduce these characters, Trunks could wind up looking much closer to his future counterpart. As for Goten, the movie could draw on his designs from Dragon Ball Z’s final episode and Dragon Ball GT. But since this version of the character isn’t in canon with the anime, it could always move in a different direction. Regardless, once the franchise finally starts to represent their proper ages, Goten and Trunks should be drastically different from the wild little pranksters they were before. And if the two have been keeping up with their training, their power levels should shoot up as well.