Will Itachi ever have a dedicated anime series?

No character has gone from being hated to getting extreme and abundant love from fans like Itachi Uchiha. He remained one of the most loved characters in the Naruto Series. He earned the spot with his kindness and genius. Even as a villain, he was badass and menacing. Despite having plenty of screen time and presence in the story, more Itachi content will always be welcomed by fans. 

An anime dedicated to Itachi?

Itachi shows up in the original Naruto anime multiple times but his character was explored better in Naruto Shippuden. His character is kind and simple but has a lot of depth and emotional intelligence. He has a separate fanbase so if we were to ever get a dedicated anime for him, we can assume it to be a successful one. 

The closest something comes to a dedicated anime, is a mixed cannon-filler arc in Naruto Shippuden. Episodes 451-458 featured his story from Shinden novels. It was far from perfect and the filler content brought down the quality of the overall source material.

• The chances of getting a dedicated anime are low but not zero. Naruto has a widespread fanbase and anything from the franchise will have an existing fanbase to serve. 
• The difficulties arise when we look at the priority of the studios. Studio Pierrot, which was in charge of the animation production of the Naruto series seems to have more important priorities right now.
•  With series like Bleach, setting out time for an Itachi spin-off seems like a laborious task. Bleach TYBW will finish in 4 cours, which lines up projects for the studio for upcoming years. 

• Also with a beloved character like him, the space for making mistakes becomes significantly narrow. So if we’re going to get an anime it’s a distant dream for now. 

Pre-Existing Competition for A potential Itachi Anime

• The anime already has other source materials competing with it within the franchise. 
• In the recent poll which took place in December 2022, fans voted to see a manga on Minato. That is more likely to get an anime as it’ll be a more recent event. It’s bound to get more traction. 
• The source material on Sasuke is also more than enough to get adapted into an anime. 

Itachi Shinden: The perfect source material

 

In the case of a dedicated anime, Itachi Shinden will work as the best source material. It has two novels and is a part of Naruto Shinden.  Which is a collection of Light novels with 3 novels primarily. These three novels are Itachi Shinden: Book of Bright Light and Book of dark night and Sasuke Shinden: Book of Sunrise. 

The filler arc in Naruto Shippuden adapted the story from Itachi Shinden(episodes 451-458). A lot of details were left out like his relationship with Shisui, Izumi, and Fugaku. Also, his inner monologues, lets you have a better understanding of his actions. In the anime, all of this is very briefly exposed. Itachi Shinden has enough content for a 10-episode-long series dedicated to him. 

Conclusion

There are no official announcements and an anime dedicated to Itachi is nowhere in sight as of now. We might get a celebratory short anime or movie on one of the special occasions. Other than that the chances are slim but being hopeful might get us the desired results.