Netflix’s ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ Movie Has Set Itself Up For A Sequel

Whether you love anime, foreign language films, or you’re just a fan of really fun CGI monsters, there’s a chance you checked out Netflix’s live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie this past week. And if you watched, there’s also a good chance you noticed this new adaptation ended on a major cliffhanger: Is Al going to get his body back or what?

Directed by Fumihiko Sori and based on the original manga by Hiromu Arakawa, the movie follows the story of two brothers in a world where people can turn base metals into gold using a science called alchemy. After their mother passes away, Ed and Al try to bring her back to life using the science, and from there things only go from bad to terrible. The attempt causes Ed to lose an arm and a leg, while Al loses his whole body. The rest of the story follows the Elric brothers doing everything they can to try and retrieve Al’s body, and they fight a few undead monsters and help overthrow the government along the way.

However, if you were watching the live-action version of the movie, you may have noticed that’s not how things ended at all. By the time the credits start rolling, Al is still stuck in his suit of armor, and Ed still has a metal arm and leg, and everything is decidedly not OK. So what’s up? How did the original manga and anime end? And is there a chance for another FMA film? Spoilers ahead.

How many versions of FMA are there?

A lot. The original version is obviously Arakawa’s manga, which is where the 2009 adapted anime gets its story from. There’s also a 2003 adaptation of the anime, which started to air while Arakawa was still publishing the manga. Because of this, the second half of the 2003 anime varies greatly from the manga and 2009 anime. The 2017 version of the Fullmetal Alchemist movie borrows a bit from both of these stories, but it seems to follow the manga and 2009 anime the most.

How did Al get his body back in the manga and the 2009 anime?

Get ready because this is about to get depressing. Just like in the movie, Ed acquires a Philosopher’s Stone and uses it to go to the Gate to rescue his brother’s body. However, he can’t bring himself to sacrifice human souls to bring Al back. He returns to the normal world and apologizes to Al, vowing that he will find another way.

Another way involves fighting a lot of really tough enemies. In the original manga, homunculi aren’t created through human transmutation but by a powerful figure called Father. After a lot of trauma and even more near-death fights, Ed faces off against Father. During the fight, Father breaks Ed’s automail arm and pierces his left arm, leaving him unable to do alchemy. Al, near the edge of death himself, uses himself as a sacrifice to bring Ed’s real right arm back. Ed, now desperate and furious, manages to kill Father, and after he’s successful, he finds his way back to the Gate. He trades his ability to perform Alchemy for Al’s body, and everyone lives happily ever after (sort of).

How did Al get his body back in the 2003 anime?

Through a series of complicated fights, international politics, and one alchemist serial killer, Al gets turned into a Philosopher’s Stone by Scar, a character who is not in the live-action movie. During a fight against the homunculus Envy, Ed dies, but Al sacrifices himself to the Gate to bring his older brother back. Ed, now alive again, defeats the mother of the homunculi Dante and realizes that Al has sacrificed himself to save him.

Ed then sacrifices his own body to bring Al back. It works, but the transmutation leaves Al alone in this world with no concrete memory of his brother. Meanwhile, Ed and Envy are transported to our world but in the past. There’s always a lot of sacrifice in this franchise.

What would a sequel to the live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie look like?

So far, Ed has already found a Philosopher’s Stone and refused to use it, so it seems most likely that if there’s a second movie, it will follow the original manga.

Have there been any talks about a sequel?

Not yet. This decision likely comes down to Netflix’s streaming numbers. The movie was a box office flop in Japan, only earning $8 million, and though based on sites like InstantWatcher, it seems like the movie is fairly popular, only Netflix knows how many people are really watching it. If the movie hits the streaming service’s magical number, it wouldn’t be surprising if Netflix greenlit a sequel, similar to what it did with the Death Note movie. Though Death Note was solely an original property and FMA is an international partnered movie, Netflix has a history of acquiring the international streaming rights to shows and movies only for future iterations to become full Netflix originals. This happened with the British series Lovesick. If Netflix doesn’t give the property a thumbs up, the live-action FMA movie will probably just live with its weird cliffhanger. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Stream Fullmetal Alchemist (2017) on Netflix