Dragon Ball Super has been a lot of fun over the years, both in the anime and manga, as well as the movies. However, there is one element of the movies that does give cause for concern, and it's the stunning lack of one particular thing: Ultra Instinct.

Whether by design or by accident, neither Dragon Ball Super: Broly nor Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero featured Goku using his most powerful form, despite both being set well after the Tournament of Power. The Tournament of Power was even referenced in the Broly movie, yet Goku never once tried to pull out Ultra Instinct against the barbarous Saiyan. That goes double for Vegeta's Ultra Ego, which has yet to be featured in animated form at all, even though he had obtained the form before Super Hero. While the manga has taken elements from the movies and brought them into its canon, the opposite almost never happens.

Why The Movies May Skip Some Manga Material

Dragon Ball Super's Movies Are Aimed at a Wide Audience

There are a few different reasons why this might be the case. Firstly, the movies are intended to capture a wider audience than just hardcore Dragon Ball fans, and they want to keep the films accessible to the general public. While "Super Saiyan Blue" may be pretty easy to understand for the average moviegoer, "Ultra Instinct" might be a little bit tougher to explain. Even with Dragon Ball Super's extreme popularity around the globe, the creators of the movies can't simply assume that everyone in the theater is fully caught up on Super's anime or manga.

There's nothing inherently wrong with this approach by itself. It helps the Dragon Ball films to hit a wide audience and be as profitable as possible, something that's necessary to keep the franchise going. However, the unintended consequence of this is that it's beginning to feel like the Dragon Ball Super movies and anime/manga are no longer being kept in canon with one another. Obviously, this was the case for quite some time in the '90s, as the movies were produced completely separately from the then-ongoing manga and anime, and rarely affected one another.

However, that has explicitly not been the case for the Dragon Ball Super era. Both the events of Broly and the events of Super Hero were made canon to the manga, to the point where the manga even expanded on Super Hero extensively. The idea that fans are supposed to be taking away now is that all Dragon Ball Super movies are completely canon to the main series, setting them apart from the Z-era movies. If that's to be the case, though, then why is Goku refraining from using his most powerful transformation in these movies?

Goku's Mastery of Ultra Instinct Has Been a Slow Process

Goku Struggled With Maintaining the Ultra Instinct Transformation After the Tournament of Power

As far as Broly is concerned, there is a potential explanation. Broly is generally interpreted as having happened fairly shortly after the Tournament of Power, and Goku did complain in the manga that he initially had some difficulty re-awakening the Ultra Instinct state once the danger of the tournament had ed. It's entirely possible that Goku wasn't able to use Ultra Instinct during Broly, and the fact that he couldn't do it meant it never came up. That explanation works decently well for this movie, but falls flat when applied to Super Hero.

It's entirely possible that Goku wasn't able to use Ultra Instinct during Broly, and the fact that he couldn't do it meant it never came up.

Super Hero is set several years after the Tournament of Power and Broly, during which time Goku embarked on the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga and the Granolah the Survivor Saga. Over the course of these storylines in the manga, Goku trained extensively to master Ultra Instinct, and even managed to create his own unique variation of it, which he calls "True Ultra Instinct." Ultra Instinct plays a big role in both sagas, particularly their finales, and so by the time of Super Hero, Ultra Instinct should just be yet another trick in Goku's arsenal, something he's even able to whip out in training with Vegeta.

Will Ultra Instinct Ever Get the Big Screen Debut It Deserves?

Ultra Instinct May Yet Appear in Dragon Ball Super's Movies

As it stands, there's a bit of a crack developing between the movies and the manga/anime, but it's not so far gone that some sort of continuity break is inevitable. After all, Goku didn't feature in Super Hero very much, so perhaps a movie which focuses more on Goku and Vegeta would indeed reveal their Ultra transformations. Many fans are eager to see the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga and Granolah the Survivor Saga animated, and would be thrilled to see them adapted as movies, with all the budget and spectacle that being a movie comes with.

If these arcs from the manga do get adapted, be it for TV or for the movies, then the writers of the movies may feel more comfortable introducing Ultra Instinct and/or Ultra Ego. So long as these arcs remain manga exclusive, though, it's unlikely that these forms will make a theatrical appearance. If the third Dragon Ball Super movie doesn't include at least Ultra Instinct, then there's definitely a big problem forming that will need to be dealt with sooner or later to keep the movies in canon with the main series. And that, of course, is without even getting into the end of the Super era.

The absence of Ultra Instinct from the Dragon Ball Super films is definitely an oddity, and right now that's all it is. However, continuing to ignore the Ultra Instinct form could be disastrous for the continuity of the franchise, and it is something that must be dealt with sooner rather than later. While there's no news of the next Dragon Ball Super movie at this time, there are rumors that a new film is in the works. Hopefully, whatever the new film is, it will include Ultra Instinct Goku, and finally reunite the Dragon Ball Super movie and anime/manga continuities.