Seven Deadly Sins Watch Order: Every Season, Movie and Sequel (2026)

Five TV entries, four films and a sequel sounds manageable until you open Netflix, find a four-episode special parked where Season 2 should be, and realise every number after it is off by one. Here is every piece of The Seven Deadly Sins in the order that works, with what is canon, what is filler, and what you can drop.

The complete watch order at a glance

#	Title	Format	Year	Essential?
1	The Seven Deadly Sins	TV, 24 episodes	2014-15	Yes
2	Signs of Holy War	TV special, 4 episodes	2016	Optional
3	Revival of the Commandments	TV, 24 episodes	2018	Yes
4	Prisoners of the Sky	Film, 99 minutes	2018	Skippable
5	Imperial Wrath of the Gods	TV, 24 episodes	2019-20	Yes
6	Dragon's Judgement	TV, 24 episodes	2021	Yes
7	Cursed by Light	Film, 79 minutes	2021	Yes, it is canon
8	Grudge of Edinburgh Part 1	Film, CG	2022	Optional bridge
9	Grudge of Edinburgh Part 2	Film, CG	2023	Optional bridge
10	Four Knights of the Apocalypse S1	TV, 24 episodes	2023-24	Sequel series
11	Four Knights of the Apocalypse S2	TV, 12 episodes	2024	Sequel series

Why the season numbers never line up

The confusion comes down to one four-episode special. Signs of Holy War aired in Japan in 2016 as exactly that, a special, so Japanese listings count the full-length seasons separately and treat it as a bridge. Netflix shelved it as Season 2 instead, which pushes Revival of the Commandments to Season 3, Imperial Wrath of the Gods to Season 4 and Dragon's Judgement to Season 5.

So when someone warns you that "season 3 is where the animation falls apart", they mean Imperial Wrath of the Gods: Season 4 on Netflix, the third full-length season in Japan. Follow the titles, not the numbers. Either way it is the same 100 TV episodes.

The five TV entries, in order

1. The Seven Deadly Sins (2014-15, 24 episodes)

Princess Elizabeth goes looking for a disbanded band of criminal knights and finds their captain running a rickety travelling tavern with a talking pig. A-1 Pictures handled this run and it still looks the best of any TV season: the Vaizel fighting festival and the Baste dungeon break are where most people decide they are staying. Meliodas spends the season playing the lecherous idiot while the show quietly seeds a backstory it will not pay off for another four years, and Hawk says what the audience is thinking.

2. Signs of Holy War (2016, 4 episodes)

Four episodes built on an original story from series creator Nakaba Suzuki rather than any manga chapter, set between the Holy Knight saga and the arrival of the Ten Commandments. Nothing here is required to follow the plot, which is why plenty of guides skip it. We would not: it runs about ninety minutes, it gives Diane, Gowther and King room to breathe before the body count climbs, and it is the last genuinely light-hearted stretch the franchise has.

3. Revival of the Commandments (2018, 24 episodes)

The power ceiling detonates. The Ten Commandments break their seal, the Sins go from regional outlaws to the only thing standing between Britannia and the Demon Clan, and the last Sin finally walks on. Escanor arrives in episode 14, "Master of the Sun", as a meek barman sheltering a badly wounded Ban and Jericho while Galand and Melascula help themselves to his tavern. Then dawn breaks, and Galand lies about being afraid of him, which his own Commandment punishes by turning him to stone. This is the final season A-1 Pictures animated, and you will notice when it ends.

4. Imperial Wrath of the Gods (2019-20, 24 episodes)

Studio Deen took over for the run that aired from October 2019 to March 2020, and this is the season everyone argues about. The criticism is not snobbery: static frames and off-model faces turned several long-awaited fights into memes, and the franchise's reputation for spectacle never recovered. Story-wise it matters enormously: Meliodas takes the Commandments into himself to claim the Demon King's throne, and the emotions he sheds doing it set up the whole of the next season. Lower your expectations on the visuals and keep going.

5. Dragon's Judgement (2021, 24 episodes)

The last TV season, again from Studio Deen, and the one that actually finishes the story. Suzuki ended the manga in March 2020 at 41 volumes, so the anime had a real ending to adapt rather than an anime-original guess. It opens with Ban stranded in Purgatory hunting those lost emotions, a stretch that pays off everything he has been owed since the Fairy King's Forest. The finale then jumps a decade to a reunion on the birthday of Meliodas and Elizabeth's son, Tristan, where Gowther shows the boy the Sins' whole story and Tristan decides he wants to be a Holy Knight too. That is the hook the next three entries hang on.

Where the four films go

Prisoners of the Sky (2018): the one you can skip

A ninety-nine minute standalone from A-1 Pictures in which the group stumbles onto a floating Sky Palace, meets the winged Celestials who live there, and gets dragged into stopping the Six Knights of Black releasing a sealed Indura. The best thing in it is Bellion, the Six Knights' leader and an upper-class demon Meliodas turned away centuries ago, who runs him through with the Winged Sword; reviving him falls to Solaad, a young Celestial who fled the duty he was born into. Suzuki wrote the story himself, but none of it carries plot weight. Skipping costs you nothing, though it holds some of the sharpest action animation the franchise produced. Slot it after Revival of the Commandments, where the cast's strength matches the film.

Cursed by Light (2021): the canon one

Spoiler warning: this paragraph assumes you have finished Dragon's Judgement.

Cursed by Light is not a side story. It adapts the manga's final chapter, set six months after the Demon King falls, with the Sins scattered and the Demon Realm taken over by a fairy and a giant. King and Diane's wedding gets attacked, Meliodas ends up fighting alongside his brother Zeldris, and the Supreme Deity comes for the Sins herself, out to punish them for ending the Holy War. The wrinkle worth knowing: the film is positioned inside the last episode of Dragon's Judgement, roughly halfway through. Purists pause the finale and watch it there. Everyone else watches it straight after episode 24, which works fine.

Grudge of Edinburgh, Parts 1 and 2 (2022-23): the bridge

Two Netflix films of just over fifty minutes each, animated in full CG by Alfred Imageworks and Marvy Jack rather than the hand-drawn style of everything before them. The switch is jarring and it is why these get overlooked. What they offer is Tristan Liones, who inherited his father's demon blood and his mother's goddess power and can steady neither, sent hunting a cure when Elizabeth falls to a curse. Deathpierce and his chimeras are the threat, and Lancelot, now in fairy form, is the company. Watch them if you want Tristan to arrive in Four Knights of the Apocalypse as a character rather than a name.

Four Knights of the Apocalypse: the sequel, explained

Set sixteen years after the Demon King's defeat, the sequel hands the lead to Percival, a boy raised in isolation by his grandfather Varghese. On Percival's sixteenth birthday a Holy Knight of Camelot named Ironside kills Varghese to head off a prophecy about four knights fated to destroy the world, then turns out to be Percival's father. Telecom Animation Film animates it under director Maki Odaira.

Season 1 ran 24 episodes from October 2023 to March 2024 and spends them gathering the prophecy's four names: Percival, Tristan, Lancelot and Gawain. It ends with Arthur dropping out of the sky and swatting all four aside at once, which resets the scale of the threat in a single scene. Season 2 is shorter: 12 episodes aired between 6 October and 29 December 2024, on Netflix worldwide from 30 January 2025. It pushes towards Camelot by way of a festival in Wolnack, and the finale, "Banquet for Braves", opens the way in while revealing what Percival actually is. No third season has been announced as of September 2026.

Do you need the original first?

You can start here, and the show is written to let you. You will lose a lot, though: Lancelot and Tristan are the children of people you have not met. If you want a shortcut, the two Grudge of Edinburgh films run under two hours together and hand you both boys before the sequel does.

The trimmed order if you are short on time

Want the canon spine and nothing else? Season 1, Revival of the Commandments, Imperial Wrath of the Gods, Dragon's Judgement, Cursed by Light, then both seasons of Four Knights of the Apocalypse. Dropping Signs of Holy War, Prisoners of the Sky and both Grudge of Edinburgh films saves roughly five hours and costs you nothing the sequel assumes you know. The trade is atmosphere: the special is where the cast is funniest, and Grudge is the only place Tristan gets a story of his own.

Release order or chronological order?

Almost the same thing here. The seasons were made in story order and the flashbacks sit inside the episodes rather than in separate specials, so there is nothing to reshuffle. Only two calls are yours: where to put Prisoners of the Sky, and whether you interrupt the Dragon's Judgement finale for Cursed by Light.

Where to watch, and where the manga picks up

Netflix has been the franchise's home since 1 November 2015, when the first season's 24 episodes landed in a single drop. As of September 2026 it carries the five TV entries, both feature films, both Grudge of Edinburgh parts and both seasons of the sequel in most regions, though catalogues shift by country, so check your own library first.

The original manga ran from October 2012 to March 2020 across 41 volumes, and between Dragon's Judgement and Cursed by Light the anime reaches its final chapter, so there is no "read on from here" point. Four Knights is the opposite: the manga has been running since January 2021 and was past chapter 250 by September 2026, far beyond where the anime stops. For more in this vein, see our Black Clover watch order, our Fairy Tail watch order, the best fantasy anime picks and the best shonen anime of all time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the correct order to watch The Seven Deadly Sins?

The Seven Deadly Sins (2014), Signs of Holy War, Revival of the Commandments, the Prisoners of the Sky film, Imperial Wrath of the Gods, Dragon's Judgement, the Cursed by Light film, Grudge of Edinburgh Parts 1 and 2, then Four Knights of the Apocalypse Seasons 1 and 2. That is release order, and it is also story order.

Do I need to watch Signs of Holy War?

No. Signs of Holy War is four episodes from an original story by Nakaba Suzuki, set between the Holy Knight saga and the Ten Commandments saga, with no plot consequences. It runs about ninety minutes and is worth it for the comedy, but you can go straight from Season 1 to Revival of the Commandments.

Are the Seven Deadly Sins movies canon?

Cursed by Light (2021) is canon, set six months after the Demon King's defeat and fitting inside the final episode of Dragon's Judgement. Prisoners of the Sky (2018) is a standalone original story with no bearing on the plot. The two Grudge of Edinburgh films bridge the original series and Four Knights of the Apocalypse.

How many episodes are there in The Seven Deadly Sins?

The original anime has 100 TV episodes: 24 in Season 1, 4 in the Signs of Holy War special, 24 in Revival of the Commandments, 24 in Imperial Wrath of the Gods and 24 in Dragon's Judgement. The sequel, Four Knights of the Apocalypse, adds 36 more across two seasons.

Do I need to watch The Seven Deadly Sins before Four Knights of the Apocalypse?

It is strongly recommended but not strictly required. Four Knights is set sixteen years later with a new lead, Percival, and explains its own premise, but returning characters and the weight of the prophecy both rely on knowledge of the original series.

Is there a Four Knights of the Apocalypse Season 3?

As of September 2026 there is no officially announced third season. Season 2 finished airing in Japan on 29 December 2024 and reached Netflix on 30 January 2025. The manga is still ongoing, with 28 volumes published by September 2026, so there is ample material for a continuation.