Juliet Starling is picking up the chainsaw again.
Lollipop Chainsaw 2 Back2Back has officially been revealed for PlayStation 5, bringing the cult zombie-action series back with an all-new game scheduled for 2027.
The announcement lands at Tokyo Game Show 2026, where the sequel is already playable — making this considerably more than a logo reveal or distant promise. Publishers NADA HOLDINGS and Dragami Games are working with developer JP UNIVERSE on the new title.
Juliet returns to a very different San Romero
Back2Back brings original protagonist Juliet Starling back after the events that made Lollipop Chainsaw one of the stranger action games of the PlayStation 3 era.
This time, San Romero has been rebuilt into Jaredwood, a sprawling city centred on the film industry. According to the official PlayStation listing, Juliet becomes trapped inside a mysterious director’s twisted zombie movie and must fight through the chaos while investigating a new threat involving Corrupted Realm zombies.
The basic formula remains wonderfully ridiculous: a cheerleader, a chainsaw and huge numbers of zombies. But the sequel has an opportunity to expand a concept that has spent more than a decade building cult status.
This isn’t another remaster
That distinction is important.
Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP brought the original game back in 2024, but Back2Back is being presented as a completely new entry rather than another restoration of the 2012 release.
Dragami Games says Juliet will return with a new costume and a more powerful chainsaw, while familiar characters are also coming back. Nick — Juliet’s boyfriend whose unusual condition became one of the original game’s running jokes — appears to once again have a difficult relationship with keeping his head attached to his body.
Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata is involved
The development team is another reason the announcement deserves attention.
JP UNIVERSE, founded by Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, is developing the game. Original Lollipop Chainsaw scenario co-writer Masahiro Yuki is also involved, alongside NekoshowguN, who contributed character concept art to the original.
That gives Back2Back a mixture of returning creative DNA and a new development structure rather than simply attempting to recreate the original game unchanged.
Why Lollipop Chainsaw still has an audience
The first Lollipop Chainsaw was never a conventional blockbuster. Its reputation came from being almost aggressively distinctive: bright pop-art visuals, black comedy, zombie dismemberment and a protagonist who looked as though she had wandered in from an entirely different genre.
According to the official PlayStation announcement, the series has sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.
That makes its return particularly well suited to the current gaming landscape. Publishers have spent years reviving franchises from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation, but many of those projects are remasters or remakes. Back2Back gives Lollipop Chainsaw something more valuable — an actual sequel.
Tokyo Game Show players don’t have to wait until 2027
Visitors to Tokyo Game Show 2026 can play the game at the Sega/Atlus booth, where the project is part of the show’s programme. That should mean impressions and gameplay details start emerging well before its eventual release.
For everyone else, the release window remains broad. Back2Back is currently scheduled for 2027 on PlayStation 5, with pricing and a specific release date still to be announced.
There is also no need to pretend the appeal is complicated.
Lollipop Chainsaw built its identity by being colourful, violent, funny and deeply weird at a time when many action games were chasing a much darker visual style. Fifteen years after the original, Juliet’s biggest advantage may be that there still isn’t much else quite like it.
And this time, she isn’t returning for another remaster. She’s getting a new chainsaw, a new city and a proper sequel.
