Persona 5 has already had a fair few victory laps by now. Although Atlus' Persona franchise was already a heavy-hitting JRPG to begin with, Persona 5 is where Atlus really struck gold and found a huge international fanbase for the games. It's no surprise, then, that Persona 5 quickly got an expanded edition and spinoffs meant to capitalize on the game's success. Even so, Atlus is probably going to sunset the Persona 5 era sometime soon. 2021 is the year of Persona's 25th anniversary, and many fans are expecting Atlus to announce Persona 6 soon. Since odds seem low that the next game is still about the cast from Persona 5, it looks like the Phantom Thieves' days are coming to an end.
However, that doesn't mean that the Phantom Thieves are gone forever. In fact, it's much more likely that they become a permanent, recurring touchstone for the Persona franchise. Atlus has an interesting habit of bringing Persona characters back in spinoffs. Persona 5's Phantom Thieves are sure to get the same treatment at the very least, but what if they get treated even better? Atlus knows that it has some extremely popular characters on its hands, and it wants to get the most out of them. Maybe Persona 6 will still feature the Phantom Thieves, but as supporting members of a new group of protagonists, rather than Persona 6 continuing the Phantom Thieves' adventures.
Atlus' Persistent Persona Protagonists
Atlus has a pretty consistent history of crossovers between Persona protagonists in side games. Perhaps the best example is the Persona Q games, which are specifically designed to bring the Persona protagonists under the same roof in a dungeon crawler RPG. Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth brought Persona 3 and Persona 4 together in 2014, and a couple years later Persona Q: New Cinema Labyrinth brought the Phantom Thieves into the mix. Each of the games focuses on the various teams of Persona users working together to solve a mystery together.
That's not the only time Atlus brought Persona characters together. Persona 4 Arena and its upgraded version Persona 4 Arena Ultimax are a pair of fighting games that also put Persona 3 and 4's characters under the same roof. It's also worth nothing that Persona 5 is full of Easter eggs referring to previous games, mentioning where the protagonists of Persona 4 are at the time of Persona 5. It's clear that Atlus likes to tie all their previous games together and see what happens when otherwise separate characters interact with each other.
So far, though, face to face interaction has been mostly relegated to spinoffs and non-canonical games. In the Persona lore, the protagonists of the various games lead very different lives and have had very different experiences with the world of Personas. That's precisely why it would be interesting for a core game to break from that tradition and give the Phantom Thieves a role in the next game. Persona 6 is most likely to be its own game, rather than another Persona 5 game, seeing how consistently Atlus has hunted for new perspectives on Persona users. That doesn't have to mean the previous characters have to stay out of the story for good, though.
Adding the Phantom Thieves to Persona 6
There's no denying that it would be a huge break from convention for the Phantom Thieves to show up in major characters in Persona 6. If the next core Persona game is about a new set of characters, one would expect them to get the whole spotlight, rather than sharing it with the Thieves. However, the Phantom Thieves' popularity might be just be the right reason to break tradition this way. They'd go a long way in reeling in fans who joined the franchise in Persona 5.
Atlus has a few options in terms of how to incorporate these characters. Persona 6 could reuse the Metaverse and Palaces, rather than coming up with a new way for Persona users to explore the world of Shadows. In that case, if there's some reason that the Phantom Thieves can't go to the Metaverse anymore, then they'll be excellent mentors to Persona 6's new heroes. It'd be interesting to see a relationship build between Persona 5's Joker and Persona 6's new protagonist, since odds are they'll share the same power of the Wild Card. Joker might be an even more talented teacher about Persona usage than Igor.
Alternatively, Persona 6 could approach the cognitive world very differently. A changing world of Shadows could be reason enough that the Phantom Thieves can't go there anymore. In a Persona 6 where new Persona users have very different experiences from Persona 5's characters, the Phantom Thieves could still teach new characters what they've learned about Personas. That could result in a further subplot about the Phantom Thieves growing up and becoming adults as new characters in Persona 6 take up their mantle. There's lots of ways that the Phantom Thieves could appear and contribute a lot to Persona 6.
Persona 5 and Persona 6's Relationship
There's tons of questions to ask about what Persona 6 will look like. There's still the distinct possibility that Atlus decides it wants to play it safe and keep capitalizing on the Phantom Thieves for now. It wouldn't be surprising; they're so popular that there's probably a lot to gain from focusing on them some more. Still, it's looking a lot like Atlus is satisfied with Persona 5 Strikers as a sequel to the original game. While Persona 5 Strikers is excellent, it doesn't quite deliver the same experience as a 100-hour turn-based RPG with deep social elements. Those are the the things that Persona 5 fans really want out of a sequel.
It does sound like Atlus isn't done with the Phantom Thieves yet, at least. Rumors abound about a Persona 5 fighting game that's supposedly in development. A game like that sounds like a logical follow-up to Persona 4 Arena, and it'd be a good way for Atlus to keep capitalizing on the Phantom Thieves while letting Persona 6 stand on its own two feet. Atlus has been pretty quiet so far despite promising some big Persona announcements this year, so it's no surprise that fans are starting to get antsy. If there's really more news on the way, hopefully Atlus doesn't wait much longer. Whether or not Persona 6 includes the Phantom Thieves, just knowing it's in the works will do a lot for the franchise.
Persona 6 is rumored to be in development.