Toyota's New Trademark Filing Hints at a High-Performance Celica

A GR Celica trademark recently appeared in Brazil, and Celica is already trademarked all around the world.

Photo by: Toyota

By: Christopher Smith

Feb 11, 2025 at 3:30pm ET

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There's more evidence that a new Toyota Celica is actually happening. Not only that, it appears a performance-oriented version could be part of the car's rebirth. A trademark filing from Toyota in Brazil features the Celica name with two critical letters in front of it: GR.

The GR Celica trademark is very recent, dated January 15, 2025, and published in early February. Aside from being classified as a trademark for "automobiles and their structural parts," nothing more is mentioned about this. We nosed around the internet for other GR Celica trademarks but came up empty. That's not to say GR Celica hasn't been trademarked anywhere else. But such filings—if they exist—haven't yet been published.

Photo by: Brasil.gov

That said, Toyota has recently trademarked Celica all over the globe. That includes the United States, where the 2021 filing status was published in November 2024. That lines up with rumors of a Celica reboot, which have floated around the internet for years at this point. Things stepped up a notch in October 2023, when Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said flat-out that he asked top executives to build one. A few months prior, Toyota CEO Koji Sato said he'd like to see one, but left it at that.

Adding even more fuel to the rumor mill, Toyota's Grip animated series briefly showed a list of cars and Celica Mk8 was among them. Celica production ended with the Mk7 in 2006. Lastly, a report from Best Car claims Toyota Chief Technology Officer Hiroki Nakajima straight-up said "We will make the Celica."

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To be clear, Toyota hasn't officially confirmed anything regarding a Celica reboot. Furthermore, the company isn't commenting on rumors or trademark filings. Automakers constantly refile and renew trademarks simply to protect the name, oftentimes with no imminent plans to use it. However, seeing a GR Celica trademark suggests there's more happening here beyond protecting intellectual property. That, combined with on-the-record comments from Toyoda and Sato voicing support for a new Celica makes a return feel imminent. It's not a case of it, but when.

As soon as we know, you'll know. Stay tuned.