Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-110.33.230.229-20150327050225/@comment-25047329-20160101100338

Root A was an alternate story, so if Pierrot goes all out new story, they would have to make almost an entirely new one separate from :re.

If they try to keep it as close to :re as possible anyway it'd be confusing to anime only watchers and alienate them. :re readers might get what's happening, but a good chunk of the manga fanbase aren't fans of the anime and would realize all the plot holes.

Ishida wrote an entire new draft for Root A, but Pierrot wasn't confident enough in it and ended up making most of the story identical to the manga anyway, bar a few key points. If they're waiting for :re to have enough chapters to borrow from, they need at least 70 something chapters or so, most of which they probably wouldn't be able to use. Not unless they really don't care about the story being confusing.

Pierrot is in a bit in a tight spot for a season three and a lot of it has to do with their own lack of confidence. They didn't want to alienate the manga fans with Root A, so ended up making superficial changes. What they ended up with was a dry story where stuff happened, but nothing was explained. I think I'd be okay with a season three no if I knew they'd at least go balls out, but Root A and the OVAs don't inspire much confidence.

Mind, I'm not denying season three being a thing because I'm still half convinced that they're waiting for :re to have enough chapters regardless if they can't work with it, but my expectations are really low because the story would likely be confusing and all over the place. Which is why a lot of people are hoping for a reboot since that'd give Pierrot a chance to adapt S2 faithfully then to :re proper.