Attack on Titan Season 2...too soon?

From what I've heard, the second season of mega-hit anime Attack on Titan is going into pre-production for its second season. Basically that means that they'll be scripting the episodes, coming up with the artwork and music and casting for new characters. So, basically, they'll be casting for the Beast Titan. Cool.

The projected release date for season two is around mid-2015, so around this time next year. Which is great, it's actually what a lot of people expected it to be, as well as hoped. Besides, Sword Art Online II is going to hold us over until then, right?

Right?

But it begged the question for me: what the heck can they pull from? When we last left our band of freedom fighters, it was around the third chapter in the ninth volume. Alright, so, let's just assume that the first episode is going to cover that fourth chapter, but, what about the other twenty-four?

I tried to do a little math (and for the most part failed at it because...math) to make an attempt at where in the manga this story could possibly take place. Right now, Japan just got Volume 14, as well as the single chapters for 59 and 60. We over here in the United States are going to be getting Volume 13, without single chapters, in about two weeks (and I can't WAIT). So, see the time difference?

Assuming that manga volumes come out every two-three months, by around this time next year we'll be at Volume 16 or 17 by the time season 2 comes around, with Japan on 17 or 18. The creator of Attack on Titan, Hajime Isayama, has previously stated he plans to do around 20 volumes, a pretty decent number I would say, given how most manga have recently only gone through about ten or twelve volumes.

To put this in perspective: AOT season 1 took up essentially 9 volumes of manga, and they still had to leave out some information. Season 2 is going into pre-production with only four more volumes out, and they have to make about 25 episodes out of it (I'm assuming, but, that's probably the case).

If this is true, then, there are a myriad of possibilities as to why this is. They might be in talks with Isayama on how much they can put into season 2 that is in future volumes, or they may try to add in new storylines as a filler of sorts, which would be kind of rough.

Adding in filler to AOT would be a vastly different experience than the first season as the first season the characters were always doing something to push the plot forward, even during their time at the settlement beyond the wall when they were just, you know, cleaning and stuff. Still, the information we got out of Hanji-san was valuable for us and then there were also the characters who were contemplating joining the Survey Corps or not. Filler episodes would drastically slow down the plot on a rather fast-paced show.

However, the good thing about pulling from what I've read (only vol. 10-12) is that even in those three volumes there is a heck of a lot of information that is packed in there. Honestly, I could see all that running for a solid nine or ten episodes, so nearly half the season. We're introduced to a new Titan, we have our characters weaponless in a castle fighting off Titans, we get to know more, a lot more actually, about Krista and Ymir and how big of a role they really play, we learn more about just how the Walls were really built, and finally find out the identities of the Colossal and Armored Titan. Granted, that last part is actually pretty quick but it's still gonna be cool to see.

But that's only the first half of the season. What about the second half? I can't say I know what could happen since I haven't gotten to read it yet but from the looks of it all it looks like the information is going to start to match the high-intensity action we got in season 1 as well. Not to mention that there are certain things that can be done in film that can't be done on page. While in a book you can show the characters riding their horses, in a show you can perform various shots to maybe tack on a few extra seconds that will add up in the long run.

What I think would be an interesting idea would be to add in elements of the "Before the Fall" spinoff series that showcases what happens before the fall of Wall Maria, showing the growth of the "Titan Baby." Perhaps season 2 could give us splashes of that as we learn more about the Walls or something, I don't know. It wouldn't technically be filler and it would certainly act as an interesting back-story for the world Isayama has built for us, even if he didn't write it.

I'm not necessarily worried about the execution of season 2 because of what does indeed happen and I certainly trust these creators with the heavy drama to make it impactful even if I know what's going to happen. I'm just worried that they may have to put in filler that might be a little boring (relatively, compared to other AOT episodes of course). I'm not expecting something of an SAO where the first half of the season rocks and the second not so much but, we'll see.

Also if they do use information up until like volume 16 how are they going to do season 3? I would just have about 10 OVAs to cover it all, I wouldn't mind that at all, it'd be pretty cool actually.