I have some stuff about this franchise on my mind for quite some time that I'd like to share with you guys, just to see how absurd my headcanon is in your eyes.
I think the "Dragon Ball Room" and all the production issues Super went through may have changed how they see and use this franchise. It was a huge success despite its shortcomings and we all thought it was coming back in 2019. At the time, some very reliable sources were reporting the production of
something related to Super's return. While none of that came to fruition, I find it suspicious that
all of those reliable sources would throw the goodwill they took years to build with such conviction.
You see, if the Dragon Ball Room was doing its job, they'd be obligated to say: we're making the same mistake. We'll have Dragon Quest, Digimon and One Piece reaching Wano at the same time we start another Dragon Ball. The last thing people saw was the Tournament of Power and Broly, expectations would be through the roof. What material would they have? Doing a movie retelling just makes sure you get an instant bad rep for reusing stuff. Even Demon Slayer's impeccable production and staff got some shit for doing a movie retelling. That would be another mistake. In sum, bringing Dragon Ball back in 2019/2020 wasn't a good idea.
We all know what happened in 2020, that probably changes plans in one way or another. Even games started coming less frequently, the amount of long lasting support Xenoverse 2 and FighterZ have received was unseen in this franchise. It looks and feels like Dragon Ball is on hold. What do we have, though? It's not like DB is dead or anything. Toriyama is involved with the series since 2013, roughly in the same way: providing outlines of new stories. We have had movies and manga consistently, with an anime added in the middle.
If the anime comes back? Well, Toriyama
still provides outlines and corrections to the monthly manga, so the best source of new material would be the Moro and Granolah arcs. In my head they're playing this smart, it would make no sense to ignore new villains, support characters, transformations and special moves approved by the original author, so that's where I think they would start. Most people don't read the manga, it'd be all new and fresh content. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero being CGI is an attempt to keep the stream of movies coming without taking animators such as Tate or Shida out of their other franchises. If they wait for Dragon Quest, Digimon and One Piece Red's completion, these animators would have breathing space to work on new Dragon Ball. Without retellings, just like old times: running a little behind the manga.
Nanatsu88's great information on merchandise just prompted me to share these thoughts cause it kinda falls in line with my headcanon