how far Steven and the Crystal Gems have come since they began fighting to save the Earth and free the rest of Gemkind from the Diamonds’ authoritarian rule. But because this is Steven Universe we’re talking about, it was never a question whether the opening sequence was hiding a dark story to come.
In addition to announcing Steven Universe: Future‘s release date, Cartoon Network’s just dropped a teaser for the series that’s short, but dense with clues about what to expect. For the most part, things in the future really are going well for the Crystal Gems and we see that Homeworld Gems like Topaz and Blue and Yellow Pearl have made a home for themselves on Earth. Steven’s really gotten into driving and hanging out with a mysterious pink Gem who appears to be a Quartz who likely served in Pink Diamond’s court and seems to still be getting the hang of Little Homeworld in Beach City.
The teaser takes a turn, though, when Jasper (that Jasper) shows up and makes it clear to Steven that while the rest of the Gems might have accepted him as Pink Diamond, she never will and still very much wants to kill him.
One of the major things that stands out in the teaser is the pink Gem’s outfit, which you can see is more or less an exact duplicate of Pink Diamond’s. We’ve known for a while that there were other proper Pink Quartzes the Diamonds kept bubbled on Homeworld, but this new Gem very could well end up being a Rose who was caught in the Diamonds’ corruption blast during the Gem War. There’s also a brief shot of Pink Pearl as the crack on her face becomes more severe, suggesting that Steven Universe: Future’s not going to shy away from answering some of the lingering mysteries about Pink Diamond’s past.
Cartoon Network’s official description for the series also adds that Steven’s set to begin manifesting yet even more powers that none of the other Gems knew he was capable of, suggesting we’ll see cool, magical alien wildness when the series drops. Of course, the big question on everyone’s minds right now is just who all is going to fuse this time around, and given “new” Gems are running around on Beach City these days, there’s probably won’t be any way of telling until the first four episodes of Steven Universe: Future premiere in the U.S. on December 7.
These episodes are currently undated in Australia.