Eevee is a ludicrously popular Pokemon that has made its way into nearly every mainline Pokemon game, and that’s largely due to its vast array of diverse evolutions. It’s only natural that hordes of Pokemon fans constantly clamor for new Eevee evolutions, but will we ever get another?
Some fans certainly think a new Eevee evolution is on the horizon. The next Pokemon game was recently revealed to be Pokemon Legends: Z-A, a follow-up to 2022’s Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Most notably, this new game is set to return to Gen 6’s Kalos region, which players haven’t seen since its initial appearance a decade ago in Pokemon X&Y. Pokemon X&Y is also the last time we saw a new Eevee evolution in the form of Sylveon. Strangely, Sylveon never received a counterpart, unlike previous Eevee evolutions.
After Sylveon’s reveal prior to the release of Pokemon X&Y, many fans expected to also find a Dragon-type Eeveelution in the game to complement Sylveon. Historically, Eevee evolutions always released in pairs that counteracted each other—Gen 2’s Umbreon and Espeon and Gen 4’s Leafeon and Glaceon—and with the Fairy type being newly introduced to Gen 6 specifically to counter the all-too-powerful Dragon types, it only made sense for a Dragon-type Eeveelution to exist alongside Sylveon. But Pokemon X&Y came and went, and a Dragon-type Eeveelution never appeared.
Pokemon X&Y always felt like unfinished games, with strange omissions and story threads that never resolved themselves. Fans expected a Pokemon Z to arrive soon after and rectify all of Pokemon X&Y’s wrongs, but Gen 6’s third entry never came, and Pokemon X&Y seemed like a one-off, forgotten and left behind.
Now, a decade later, Pokemon Legends: Z-A is revisiting Gen 6, and many are expecting it to serve as the pseudo-Pokemon Z title we never got. As such, Pokemon trainers across the world are eagerly anticipating Legends: Z-A to satisfy their unfulfilled X&Y dreams, with the inclusion of new Mega Evolutions and, of course, that missing Dragon-type Eeveelution.
It should be said that there is currently no confirmation nor evidence to suggest that we’ll see a new Eevee evolution in Pokemon Legends: Z-A. In fact, we know next to nothing about the game aside from its setting and release window. But there’s also little evidence to suggest future Eevee evolutions are off the table.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus showed it wasn’t afraid to introduce brand-new evolutions and regional forms for old Pokemon despite the game being nebulously categorized as something between a mainline entry and a spinoff. It’s only to be expected that Legends: Z-A will do the same, and there’s no reason to think Eevee is too sacred to touch. Eevee routinely received new evolutions before, and it can happen again.
Aside from that, a Dragon-type Eevee evolution just makes sense. Beyond serving as a Sylveon counterpart, all Eevee evolutions share the same feature: their types are categorized as “Special” as opposed to “Physical” types.
If you’re unfamiliar, before Gen 4, a move’s type determined whether it would be a Physical or Special attack rather than each move having its own individual categorization. The Special types included Fire, Water, Electric, Grass, Ice, Psychic, Dark, and Dragon (at the time, there was no Fairy type, but you can still see today that Fairy heavily favors Special attacks as well). If you’re keeping track, the Dragon type is the last Special type that doesn’t have an Eevee evolution attached to it.
But with that said, I wouldn’t count on it. In a past interview, three Pokemon designers and the original creators of Eevee seemed to dismiss the idea of making new Eevee evolutions with a lighthearted joke bashing the idea of a bug-type Eeveelution. Reading between the lines, it seems to me that they presume an Eeveelution based on any other type not currently represented wouldn’t be “cute” and Eeveelutions need to be cute.
The “cute” perspective seems a little ridiculous considering there are cute Pokemon that exist for every type in the franchise. I mean, just look at the Dragon-type Pokemon Alteria and tell me that thing isn’t exuding some cutesy vibes. In fact, the things the Pokemon Company considers to be dragons are just ridiculous—if you can have a tree, an apple, and a skyscraper be a dragon, why not a cute dog-thing?
But beyond the cute factor, the Eevee family may just be getting too darn big. If you had an Eeveelution for every type, Eevee and its evolutions would take up nearly 5% of an average regional Pokedex. Considering there are now well over a thousand Pokemon in the franchise, devoting that much space to a single Pokemon family would be ridiculous. Maybe we can squeeze one more Eevee evolution into the franchise, but the Eevee evolutions have to end at some point.
Regardless, I suppose we’ll have to wait until Game Freak can figure out new ways to make Eevee cute before we see a new evolution for it. Maybe it will happen in Legends: Z-A. Maybe it won’t. Only time will tell when Pokemon Legends: Z-A releases sometime in 2025.
