With Final Fantasy Rebirth and the Remake series making changes to FF7’s story, is the sequel to the original game, Advent Children, still considered canonical? Warning, this article contains spoilers for all Final Fantasy 7 games.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the previous Remake are set in a parallel universe to the original FF7, one where the timeline has already deviated from the story told in the PS1 game. At the end of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, characters who died during the events of Advent Children, an animated sequel to the original game released in 2005, are alive in the story.
Advent Children and other stories set after the events of FF7, like Dirge of Cerberus, run the risk of being retroactively changed by the new universe.
Of course, they still appear as canon in the original Final Fantasy timeline, but the Remake series, including Rebirth and what follows, goes its own way.
Here is everything we know about the canonical status of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children in the timeline of FF7 Remake and Rebirth.
Will Aerith survive the events of FF7 Rebirth?
Will Advent Children be canonical in FF7 Rebirth?
The answer to this question is slightly complicated, because everything depends on what will happen in Final Fantasy Rebirth and the upcoming third and final chapter of the FF7 Remake series, especially regarding the fate of the characters.
In Advent Children, characters like Aerith and Zack (as well as Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie) are all dead. Not only that, but the film shows that Aerith and Zack were reunited in the afterlife. A conversation between the two of them at the end implies that they are still watching over Cloud and the gang, and seem to be helping them from the afterlife.
As these characters are currently alive in the new timeline, this would suggest that Advent Children will not be canonical with the Remake series. However, there are still two full games to come and a lot could happen between now and then. It’s entirely possible that Aerith and Zack will die by the end of the Remake series, making Advent Children canonical with both timelines.
Ultimately, you have to wait and see. Let’s not forget that the Whispers are working on having the Remake timeline follow the events of the original, but are we confident they will fully achieve this? However, when it comes to characters like Aerith and Zack, their survival is not guaranteed in any universe.
Is Dirge of Cerberus still canonical?
Dirge of Cerberus gave Vincent Valentine a chance to shine.
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy 7 was a spin-off sequel starring Vincent Valentine, released for PS2 in 2006, a year after Advent Children. Like the movie, this game was also set in the original timeline where Zack, Aerith, and others died.
Therefore, the same applies here. For Dirge of Cerberus to be canonical, some characters will have to die in FF7 Rebirth and the third chapter. As it stands, Dirge of Cerberus is not canonical with the Remake series, but again, that could change by the end of the story.
Stories like Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus could also be updated and revamped themselves. They could even be introduced in some form in the third and final Final Fantasy 7 Remake game, with similar events, but taking into account characters like Aerith and Zack, if they are still alive. Once again, we’ll have to wait and see how Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth turns out.
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