Cooler May Not Be Canon, But a New Interview Opens the Door For Their Dragon Ball Homecoming

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Dragon Ball has had a lot of movies at this point, with some movie villains better than others. Cooler, Frieza’s brother, happens to be one of the better ones, but alas, that still doesn’t make him canon–but that’s not to say he couldn’t be.

Cooler is a movie villain who appears in Dragon Ball Z: Cooler’s Revenge, and a version of him known as “Meta-Cooler” also appears in Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler. Like Frieza, he leads an army, known as the Cooler Force, and he’s just as cruel and vicious. Cooler’s appearance is similar to Frieza’s as well, but with some added armor-like features that seem to be part of his body. He’s less egotistical than Frieza, however, which can actually make him far more dangerous, as he’s less likely to make mistakes out of hubris. Cooler and Frieza had a classic sibling rivalry, with Cooler a bit resentful of Frieza’s status as the favored child.

Cooler is the Closest the Movies Come to Being Canon

Cooler Was Created by Toriyama for the Movie

Like many movie villains, Cooler was originally designed by Akira Toriyama, specifically to be Frieza’s older brother. In an interview with Toriyama’s former editors on the Japanese KosoKoso podcast, as translated by @Venixys on X (Formerly Twitter), Yu Kondo spoke about the villain. He noted that the movies generally had to be set during a period where nothing major was happening in the storyline, filling in gaps and keeping to storylines that wouldn’t have a lasting impact on canon. Originally, Toei wanted to feature Frieza in a movie, but since Frieza was still active in the manga, there was no way to do that.

Thus, Toriyama created a character “reminiscent of Frieza,” who was meant to be his elder brother, Cooler. Thus, Cooler was always intended from Toriyama’s first design to be related to Frieza. While many of the movies are rather detached from the main plot, Cooler’s crusade against Goku and Earth is a direct consequence of Frieza’s defeat by Goku (and subsequent death at the hands of Future Trunks).