Final Fantasy VII Remake series creative director Tetsuya Nomura has revealed that work has already begun on the third entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, despite the fact that the second game in the franchise won't be out until the end of 2023. It was revealed during the Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Celebration livestream that the next entry in the FF7 Remake series will be called Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and it will feature the Kalm flashback.
The original FF7 Remake was announced during E3 2015, but it wasn't released until 2020. There were rumors of behind-the-scenes issues, as CyberConnect2 was originally working alongside Square Enix on the game, but the two companies parted ways. It seems that all of the development issues with the FF7 Remake series have been resolved and the framework for the future games has been laid down, so there's reason to believe that the next two entries in the series won't take as long to create.
It seems that fans might not have to wait as long for the unnamed third entry in the FF7 Remake series as they thought. Nomura mentioned in a PR email sent out by Square Enix that work has already begun on the third FF7 Remake game, even though Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is still in development and won't be released for another year and a half. He revealed that work on the new games is progressing rapidly, due to a new development structure adopted by the team.
"The development of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH has been progressing rapidly since we adopted a new development structure. A title of this scale in which everything is interconnected even before production began is truly rare. In fact, some development has already begun on the third title. I myself have started on the development and am working towards the completion of the series."
It's likely that Nomura is referring to pre-production elements, such as planning out the events of the third game, and how the second game will connect to them. The Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy likely won't cover the exact same events as the original game, so it makes sense that Nomura is laying down the foundation for future games, especially if the new storyline deviates a great deal from that of FF7. It's possible that the team is aiming for three-year development cycles between each game. If Zack Fair is a major part of the story going forward (as hinted in the new trailer), then events will likely be very different this time around.
If Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hits its release date, then the third game will likely launch in 2026. There is every reason to believe this won't be the case, considering how many games have been pushed to next year, including Final Fantasy XVI's 2023 release date, so fans shouldn't be too confident, especially as FF7 Remake also faced delays. It seems that production on the second and third entries in the FF7 Remake series is going a lot smoother than the original games, and fans won't have any more five-year waits to return to Cloud Strife and his friends.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released in winter 2023 for PlayStation 5.
Source: Square Enix