Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima discuss the closing stages of the Netflix animation – and what it means for future movies.

By Patrick Cremona

Published: Friday, 14 June 2024 at 10:00 AM

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*Warning: Spoilers ahead for Ultraman: Rising.*

Although Ultraman is perhaps not the most famous superhero among Western audiences, in Japan he’s one of the most iconic characters of all time.

Now, he’s finally being introduced to a wider international audience, thanks to a brand new animated Netflix film from Kubo and the Two Strings writer Shannon Tindle and co-director John Aoshima.

Ultraman: Rising follows international baseball star Ken Sato, who is reluctantly forced to return to Tokyo from his successful career in LA in order to take over from his father as the titular hero.

His duty is to protect citizens from the various kaiju that regularly invade the Japanase capital, but not long into his stint he winds up accidentally adopting a baby kajiu whose mother he had defeated – which leads to him having to balance his baseball career, his Ultraman job and some rather complex parenting duties. No easy feat by any means.

Throughout the film, we also hear various references to Ken’s mother, who is missing and feared dead – eventually building to a bombshell moment in a mid-credits scene.

If you’re looking for a little more context about what that all means – and whether we might see more films in the future – read on to have the Ultraman: Rising credits scene explained by the film’s directors.

Ultraman: Rising credits scene explained – will there be another film?

After the first round of closing credits roll, we see an image of a beeping watch with a flashing message that reads: “INCOMING”.

Ken – who seems to have been sleeping – wakes and picks it up, at which point we hear a distant woman’s voice, although it’s initially almost impossible to make out what exactly she is saying.

Eventually it can be heard more clearly, saying: “Kenji, can you hear me?” while the display on the watch now reads, LOCATION: NEBULA M78.

Finally, we hear the voice saying: “It’s mom, I’m still alive. Help me get back home.” Ken looks in shock at this revelation before the screen cuts to black and the credits resume.

So it’s pretty clear that this is Ken’s mother somehow making contact with her son, but what is the deeper meaning of where she might be and what has happened to her?

Well, according to co-director John Aoshima: “It’s a big mystery for non-fans of Ultraman. But if you know, you know what that means.”

“You know what the reference is on that watch,” agreed director Shannon Tindle.

And it looks like the plan is for this revelation to be explored in future films, with Tindle adding to RadioTimes.com: “It’s our hope, I have ideas for films two or three.”

He continued: “I have had ideas for those films for quite some time. And that little tag [the post-credits scene] I didn’t tell anybody – it wasn’t in the script. I just wrote it and boarded it on my own. And then pitched it, I think I pitched to you [Aoshima] the first time. And you were like, ‘Oh my God. What?’ They had no idea.

“But it was like yeah, I wanted… because there is this constant question of what happened to Ken’s mom. And I want to give a little bit of an answer but something that also tees up the other stories that I’d love to tell.”

What is Nebula M78?

As mentioned above, it is revealed that the mysterious call from Ken’s mother is coming from a place called Nebula M78. So what and where exactly is this?

Well, in Ultraman lore, this is a place three million light-years away from Earth which is home to the Land of the Light – the planet where most of the Ultras live. There are other planets also situated within this Nebula – which is officially titled Messier 78 – but it seems likely that this is the one where Ken’s mother has now found herself.

As for how she got there – and why she seems so desperate to get home – it appears we’ll have to wait until the second film to find out. Here’s hoping Tindle gets his way and it’s greenlit!