Beloved anime director and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki has provided updates on his latest project, once again confirming he is out of retirement (the man loves to play with our emotions) to make a feature animated film. The initial announcement came in 2018, where he revealed his upcoming film would be based on How Do You Live?, a 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino which follows the story of a 15-year-old boy in Tokyo, who moves in with his uncle after his father dies. Miyazaki cites How Do You Live?  as one of his favourite books.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Miyazaki provided a rare update; though the film is already four years in the making, it still has some way to go. This unfortunately means we likely won’t see a release for at least a couple more years, later than originally thought. And as for whether it will carry the same title as the novel on which it’s based, he did not answer in the affirmative. Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli’s co-founder, has described the upcoming film as “fantasy on a grand scale”.

Though this upcoming venture has been widely dubbed the director’s “swan song,” we know Hayao Miyazaki has a long history of changing his mind about retirement. The first time fans saw him retire was in the late 1990s, only to return a year later for the Oscar-winning – and arguably his best film to date – Spirited Away. He announced his retirement again in 2013 before returning for the short film Earwig and the Witch (which was developed into a feature-length film by his son, released earlier this year) then retired again shortly after. So yes, take any statements about How Do You Live? being the filmmaker’s last with a pinch of salt.

When asked why he would be returning to direct this film, Miyazaki had a very simple answer: “Because I wanted to.” Can’t argue with that.