Mazda kind of threw us for a loop back in May of 2021. There was word that the next-gen Mazda 6 will ride on an AWD platform and feature a new, powerful straight-six engine. It wasn’t long before Mazda confirmed that the Mazda 6 was officially being discontinued in the United States with no word about that mythical next-gen Mazda 6 in sight. Now, surprisingly enough, Mazda has filed a new trademark for an all-new stylized R logo that could be hinting at something big.

Is This New Trademark Hinting At the Return of the RX Brand?

This new trademark filing was uncovered by the folks over at the New Nissan Z forum, and while there’s little context to go on, it does lead to some extreme speculation. Is it possible that Mazda is plotting a new line of performance vehicles that will wear an R badge? It would be nice to see the Mazdaspeed3 make a comeback and it would make up for the Mazda 6’s sudden departure, but we’re thinking it could be something else entirely. }

Remember back in 2019 when Mazda not only confirmed it was working on the Wankel rotary engine, and that it was, in fact, making a comeback. The downside to that is that the Rotary is destined to live on as a range-extender for electric cars, with the Mazda MX-30 being the first to adapt this rejuvenated old technology. The RX brand has been dead since the RX-8, which wasn’t received nearly as well as the RX-7, but we’ve all been itching for a replacement ever since. There was even a patent filed back in 2020 that suggested a rotary-powered RX-9 could happen!

The other tidbit of evidence to back up this idea falls into the driver’s seat of the 2016 Mazda RX-Vision concept. That car was said to inspired future road cars, but Mazda refused to commit to producing it – probably because the sports car niche, in general, was slowly diminishing. Some of the RX-Visions cues did make their way onto other cars and became a part of Mazda’s latest design language, but we’ve yet to see a proper sports car. It is logic then to at least hope that this new R logo is a hint that the RX-Vision or another RX car in general is possible. Here’s to hoping.