10 Animal Crossing Collab Villagers We’d Love to See Next

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has just surprised everyone by announcing a massive new update coming in 2026. Scheduled to release on January 15th, 2026, the free Update 3.0 will bring brand-new ways to play the game, both alone and with friends. The update will add a new hotel to play around with, dream islands to customize, multiplayer features, and so much more.

Among the other content, Nintendo has announced several collaborations that will also arrive in ACNH in January. Players will be able to dress up as and decorate with items and villagers from The Legend of Zelda, Splatoon, and LEGO. Splatoon and Zelda, in particular, have brand-new villagers coming to players’ islands.

Animal Crossing collaborations have happened in the past, but the new update has renewed hope that more are in the works. And some dream Animal Crossing: New Horizons collaboration villagers would just make sense as the franchise continues to grow and expand.

Gundam Would Bring A Touch Of Sci-Fi To ACNH

The Brand Has Collaborated With Sanrio, So Why Not?

A Gundam x Animal Crossing crossover might seem too random to ever happen, but it’s not that unlikely. The sci-fi mech franchise has had many unusual collaborations in the past, including, most notably, Sanrio. And if there’s a Hello Kitty Gundam out there, why can’t there be an Animal Crossing Gundam, too?

Besides the obvious choice of a villager with a Gundam helmet, the game could get creative. After all, the franchise already has Cephalobot, the robotic octopus villager. It would be completely feasible to have a rabbit villager with antennae in place of ears. The stranger villagers tend to be the most popular, so a funky rabbit Gundam character would be a surefire hit!

Monster Hunter Palicos Would Make Perfect Villagers

Bring Felynes To The Rest Of The World

A Monster Hunter collaboration already exists, but if you live outside of Japan, you may never get to see it. Felyne is a lazy cat villager that appeared in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. He could only be brought to the island by scanning one of the six Monster Hunter Stories series 1 amiibo, which were never released globally.

Since the update 3.0 Zelda and Splatoon characters are tied to amiibo, it would make sense to bring Monster Hunter Palicos back for all fans to enjoy.

But Palicos are just the start! So many Monster Hunter monsters would make amazing villager designs, as can be seen in this mockup shared a few years ago by Redditor TwiztidJuggalo1973. As both Monster Hunter and Animal Crossing continue to gain popularity and fans, there’s hope that they’ll combine forces again in the future.

Sanrio Deserves Another Collaboration

One Collab Exists, But It’s Time For A Second Round

The Sanrio brand is behind beloved cute characters like Hello Kitty and Cinnamoroll. The franchise even has its own cute island life sim in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, so a crossover event could see the two games exchanging beloved characters between each other.

Sanrio has already collaborated with Animal Crossing in 2021, but the villagers were inspired by their Sanrio counterparts, not representing them. Hello Kitty, after all, was a gorilla!

A new collaboration with Sanrio could bring the beloved Sanrio characters to fans’ islands in their proper form (ie Hello Kitty as a cat villager). It could also introduce new characters that were excluded the first time, like Aggretsuko and Kuromi.

Disney Characters And Decor Would Look Right At Home In ACNH

Disney Dreamlight Valley Is A Great Animal Crossing-Esque Title

Disney Dreamlight Valley is Disney’s response to Animal Crossing—a cozy decorating, crafting, daily living sim that lets you collect your favorite Disney characters as “villagers.” Considering that Dupes of Disney dresses are some of the most popular custom design creations, a Disney x Animal Crossing crossover would be incredibly popular.

It would be fun to have Disney characters appear as animal villagers in ACNH, but that’s not likely since Disney is famously protective of its designs. But Disney movies also have many mascot animal characters that would work just as well, like Heihei, Goofy, Iago, and Pascal.

Sonic Could Introduce Hedgehog Villagers

The Long-Lost Able Brother

Animal Crossing already has the three Able sisters: hedgehogs who make their living in the fashion industry. But as of right now, there are no hedgehog villagers that can make their homes on player islands.

A collaboration with Sonic the Hedgehog could change that. The incredibly popular Sonic franchise is already similar to the Animal Crossing style, so Sonic would fit right in with the other villagers.

Doom Would Be A Throwback To 2020

Two Of The Most Important Games From A Dark Era

Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons were released on the same day: March 20, 2020. You might remember this to be a pretty uncertain time in our recent history, and Isabelle and “Doom Guy” became icons of the power of games to get us through difficult times.

The success of ACNH would be difficult to replicate, since the game’s release happened to coincide with a time when its coziness was a welcome distraction from the worldwide pandemic. An official collaboration with Doom would be a loving nod to the often-memed lightning-in-a-bottle moment that had Isabelle and the Doom Slayer joining forces.

A Doom-inspired villager could simply wear the iconic helmet, like the Super Sentai characters that already exist in the Animal Crossing games. Or, they could get creative like the Sanrio crossover did, like naming a character Slayer and giving him the catchphrase “rip and tear!”

Okami Has An Awesome Wolf Villager Design

The Games Could Cross-Promote Each Other

An Okami sequel was unexpectedly announced late last year, to many fans’ delight. There’s no official release date yet, but Okami 2 is likely to release in 2026 or 7—which might coincide with the next Animal Crossing title. If the timing works out, a collaboration or even crossover might be a great way to get Animal Crossing fans to check out Okami 2.

To understand why Okami is the perfect collaboration subject, you only need to look at the Amaterasu villager design shared by Redditor DL2828. The wolf character’s distinct markings make her an excellent potential villager—and a surefire fan-favorite if the collab ever happens.

Final Fantasy Has Many Familiar Animal Characters

A Chocobo Villager Would Be Very Popular

Final Fantasy might be known for its memorable characters, but it also has its fair share of instantly recognizable animals and creatures. In fact, many already come with their own catchphrases, from the Chocobo (catchphrase: “kweh!”) to the Moogle (catchphrase: “Kupo!”)

Though my focus here is on crossover ACNH villagers, there is even more potential for Final Fantasy decoration items. If you’ve ever thought that a Cactaur and a Gyroid look pretty similar, that’s because both are based on the historic haniwa statues. I’d personally love a Cactaur Gyroid dancing it up in my home, some decorative crystals, and a copy of the adorable Tonberry humidifier from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Star Fox Already Has Animal Characters

Fan Theories Already Connect The Two Franchises

The main cast of Star Fox consists of a fox, rabbit, bird, and frog—all of which also exist as villager types in Animal Crossing. (Okay, technically, there are only wolves in Animal Crossing, but try telling that to Audie and Chief, who are very fox-like!)

In fact, the resemblance of the Star Fox cast to Animal Crossing characters has led to plenty of fan theories that place the two franchises in the same universe. A model of the Star Fox ship, the Arwing, can be found in several Animal Crossing games (but not New Horizons), so it’s not completely out of the question to one day find Peppy wandering around your island, telling everyone who’ll listen to “do a barrel roll!“

Pokémon Is An Obvious Choice For A Collab

Fan Designs Show How Perfectly Pokémon x ACNH Would Be

Animal Crossing and Pokémon fans have been clamoring for a crossover event for years. Instead, Pokémon has announced that it’ll be launching its own AC-like game called Pokémon Pokopia.

Still, fans like doom_mori on X and countless modders have been trying to bring Pokémon into the cozy game for years. Many Pokémon look surprisingly good in the Animal Crossing: New Horizonsstyle, and fit right in with the rest of the game. Now that Pokémon is launching its own life sim, maybe we’ll see a crossover event someday in the future.