Today Joe Clary, the Co-Head of Animation at Rooster Teeth posted an update on Twitter explaining that in order to not rush production and protect the team working from home, RWBY Volume 9 is now planned to release in 2022. And everyone seems to be understanding and supportive of this decision.
And it’s impossible to say that these people are being insincere – every RWBY fan would much rather wait a little longer than have the people creating it suffer from stress and crunch. Fans are also understanding that if CRWBY did rush the show to be released in 2021, its quality would most likely suffer. Although Rooster Teeth’s animation department is definitely no stranger to crunch, as seen in current and past Glassdoor reviews, if the reason why the volume is delayed is to protect CRWBY from working overtime, then it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
If the reasons for the delay are clear, why am I still surprised to see everyone take the news so well? In my case, I’ve been in my fair share of fandoms, and entitlement is definitely prevalent among most of them. It’s easy to forget that there are real people living real lives that dedicate a part of themselves to create something you enjoy. And sometimes that entitlement can lead to people feeling like the thing they’ve been owed was stolen from them… To see an extreme version of that, just take a look at what happened when 2020 hit video-game Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed the second time. The people working tirelessly at the game, crunching for months were harassed and threatened by entitled fans who wanted the game to come out earlier. At that point, the game was nowhere near completion, and arguably it wasn’t completed when it was released 21 days later. In Cyberpunk 2077’s developer CD Projekt RED’s case the crunch didn’t stop after the delays, it got worse. The very same fate could potentially happen to CRWBY and unfortunately the only thing we can do is put our trust in Rooster Teeth that the same situation wouldn’t happen.
So why are RWBY fans different? Why does it look like everyone (alright, realistically it’s mostly everyone, but we’re not splitting hairs) is more than okay with the team taking more time to finish the volume? Well, first of all, RWBY fans didn’t pay $60 or more for a pre-order… In all seriousness though, the circumstances are different. We’re neck-deep in the pandemic now and most of us have personally felt how unproductive work or studying from home could really be. The last Volume looked and sounded incredible and set a new high for the series, not to mention it was the longest by far. Finally, Rooster Teeth, as a company, is a bit more visible and engaged with their fanbase, as opposed to most anime and western animation companies, letting people more easily connect to individual people working behind the show. And we don’t want people we connected to suffer, hence why so many people are so supportive. I read through all of the comments on the Twitter post (over a hundred at the time of writing) and it took me about 79 positive, supportive and lovely people until I saw my first negative, or rather, first comment that expressed disappointment without any words of encouragement or support. The rest of the comments after that one were also heartwarmingly sweet.
But did this announcement come as a shock? Nope, not really. Besides the pandemic and RT’s promise to reduce crunch in the workplace, we have more evidence to show that it was inevitable. The past volumes!
| Volume | Date of release | Date of final episode | Days since last volume’s finale |
| 1 | July 18th, 2013 | November 7th, 2013 | – |
| 2 | July 24th, 2014 | October 30th, 2014 | 259 |
| 3 | October 24th, 2015 | February 13th, 2016 | 359 |
| 4 | October 22nd, 2016 | February 4th, 2017 | 252 |
| 5 | October 14th, 2017 | January 20th, 2018 | 252 |
| 6 | October 27th, 2018 | January 26th, 2019 | 249 |
| 7 | November 2nd, 2019 | February 1st, 2020 | 249 |
| 8 | November 7th, 2020 | March 27th, 2021 | 280 |
Generally speaking, while the time between volumes stayed about the same (if we’re not counting V2-V3, which is offset by V2’s bizarre runtime), beginning with Volume 6, volumes started to be released later and later. Volume 8 was the first one to be worked on during the pandemic, but even that it didn’t take too long to release. However, since Volume 8 had a six-week mid-season break and was in general the longest volume so far, it stands to reason that work for Volume 9 began much later than the other volumes. So if we take the same amount of days between volumes 7 and 8, and we add those days to volume 8’s finale we could get an approximation of when realistically Volume 9 could be released.
You ready? January 1st, 2022. The numbers don’t lie and they spelled disaster to any chances for Volume 9 to be released in 2021 even before today’s announcement. And while I can’t blame anyone who was hoping that the newest volume would be released this year, especially since I was one of those people, I still absolutely love how the community responded to this announcement.
Take your time, CRWBY. We’re gonna enjoy V9 whenever its ready.
Im not upset about it, its Roosterteeth and its not alot of money really. But they have been progressing the show in the wrong direction of what Monty had. Its not bad but its not the great show it couldve been. And two years ago before the bs virus and everyone flipping out about it but almost all of us are still on this rock, they said they had worked on season 8 and 9. But then when it came down to it they really hadn’t done much because they had to split season 8 and then if they had really had any done it wouldn’t have happened like this. Me i believe they are just milking RWBY because its their only cash maker, most unsub until it comes back, so by stalling it they can get a whole year out of the ones who don’t unsub. And honestly they don’t really have anything else worth watching. Its mainly content of them putting themselves on a show and making a title for it. So i figure RWBY is on the downhill and its why most don’t care anymore, we used to get 1000’s of comments and now its just a hundred or so. And also there’s no entitled when a company is putting out a product and a consumer is buying, if they company can’t meet the deadline they put on themselves or have product for paying customers on a timely manner, that company either needs to stop production of product or come up with something in the meantime. It is never about the worker, we all go to work for a pay check, yeah its nice to be safe and secure and not be stressed, but that is the entitlement we try to pass off in the States. But at this point im not going to get mad about it, if they said they needed another month or two to make it quality. But if they go and give an excuse they can’t make it by the end of 2022, well then we have a problem and i would unsubscribe and probably never give them a chance again at my dollar and thats business. No hard feelings or anything but consumers are not investors in that sense, they buy expecting a product and not thin air.
That “bs” virus that has, so far, killed 263M worldwide? That’s the one you mean? The only entitlement here is this entire comment.
Technically, the virus has killed 5.3M people worldwide. That 263M number (now 269M) applies to the number of cases. Not discounting anyone’s death, but those are the numbers. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
That’s pretty substantial misinformation you got there. But that’s what watching cable news gets you. Thinking the world is ending, being hyper focused on libs or trumpers instead of focusing on the leadership, the wealthy and the elite media that helps sell their nonsense. Turn of Fox and CNN. Stuff like Breaking Points is the way forward while old media continues to lose audience and fade away. The major news corporations of today will be remembered for little more than selling their souls and causing division.
Oh also stop letting party leaders scapegoat stuff like FB, Youtube, twitter, any other social media, or the other side in general. Our leadership is failing and that causes people to look elsewhere. There have been and always will be extreme ideas most people won’t get on board with. We cannot try to silence dissent and act astounded when they pushback because you have no say in how others think or in what they post online. If you’re so worried about it YOU form a coalition that can make real change in the world and convince people to help. If Qanon and other nonsense end up beating out everything else, that’s as much the fault of those who failed to make a better case.
Thank you for letting us, the fan base know about the further delays. Although I wish season 9 started this year, I’m ok with next year because of this world wide COVID-19 pandemic. I trust that the stories in volume 9 will rock like season 8 did. My excitement for RWBY has not dimmed at all. I still like to watch the series as a whole, and for now have put it on the back burner until we know when RWBY will definitely restart. Then I shall go back and watch all the episodes from 1-8, and then hungrily jump into 9. Good luck, stay healthy, be safe, and then give us more great RWBY in volume 9. WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!
I’m not upset by it. BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT, if a Delayed Rwby is not good you can expect a lot of backlashes. I hope Crwby takes the critics of Volume 8 into consideration and tries to make better pacing for the next volume, because frankly, the only good thing out of volume 8 is the opening for me, and that’s it. We want development, but we don’t want it to be rushed.
I cant wait for it to come out in 2022
>January 1st, 2022. The numbers don’t lie and they spelled disaster to any chances for Volume 9 to be released in 2021
samoa fricking Joe reference?
must be why volume 8 sucked so bad writers must have just been braindead from lack of sleep T.T I’m fine if you delay don’t rush it and let it turn out like shit like season 8 which I heard was rushed this show has already fucked up enough characters I cant bear to keep seeing it happen you guys just keep ruining characters with shitty writing then kill them off without redeeming for fixing them such a waste.
stop hate watching shows, if you don’t like it then move on
This is the worst type of comments. He’s not hate watching… He’s disappointed in a show that he used to like watching. He keeps watching hoping it gets better so far but it just not doing it.
You know how long I been waiting for the damn MAIN CHARACTER RUBY to have a good fight scene?
we are gonna enjoy it as long as there is not lgbt garbage pushed down our throats , rwby should be for straight people to feel safe and not unwelcome
While I agree it shouldn’t be LGBT forced upon us, I don’t agree on your other point. RWBY should be for everyone. I don’t really think you need to worry about LGBT. We only saw it once and there was no emphasis on it. Romance is not what RWBY is about.
Disagree with you. I’d much prefer to see girl+girl than the garbage Jaun het pushed down our throats. I almost quit watching because of the Jaun garbage.
wtf, then go watch something else you pervert
I really hope it comes out in January, but I can’t really blame them if it doesn’t. 2021 has been a rough year, 2022 won’t be much better the way the world looks now.
Hey just wondering about V9 I support CRWBY but it’s coming to the end of 2021 and I can’t see nothing anywhere regarding an update. When you said in 2022 did you mean October/November time when the others have been aired or did you mean 2022 as in “it’ll take a couple extra months to air and it’ll be airing Jan/Feb.
I find myself looking every other day so clarification would be appreciated
You all read this:
https://bumbleby.com/rwby-volume-9-to-premiere-exclusively-to-the-new-hbo-max-expansion-package/
Sounds like a bad April Fools joke, but sadly it wasn’t posted on April Fools day.
Bud that article has been proven to be pure satire its all BS and none of it is real might i add it was stated in this article that the date was january 1st 2022 in the article above and yet here we are january 18th and still no volume 9 i am by no means complaining i can wait for them to take their time RWBY is a really good show but to top it all off these articles have 0 credibility other than a bunch of he said she said BS
Hey, the last paragraph might be a little confusing so I’ll shed some light on it. I never claimed that the show would be out on January 1st, it was simply the result of the calculations you can read about. It wasn’t there to provide a false hope, but rather to prove that even before any delays it was always incredibly unlikely to see RWBY come out in 2021.
Oh and please don’t lump in my articles with those of the other writers – they are for a different audience altogether. It’s not great to see them being compared, especially after I try my best researching and sourcing my works..
Everyone is surprisingly chill because nobody cares anymore. It’s trash these days.
they should have killed adam in volume 8. they could have done it the same way but without him following blake. In the moral, what a rude death that was, and used to reinforce the relationship of the two that almost doesn’t even walk
so…. where is it. where’s v 9 its march
I love this show