Who does “you” mean in All Might’s “You’re next”?

The person hearing a statement is not automatically the person it addresses. All Might's public handoff becomes dangerous when being part of its audience is mistaken for being chosen by its speaker.

ComicBook's interview report with Kenta Miyake identifies Deku as the recipient of All Might's gesture after the fight with All For One. Miyake discusses a physically broken hero who still looks ahead. This establishes the reported interpretation of that moment; it does not identify a particular English dub or subtitle track.

A handoff needs a relationship

A short phrase containing only a pronoun and an indication of sequence cannot carry its own full explanation. Who is next, and next to do what? A picture of someone pointing can preserve the gesture while leaving those questions unanswered. The relationship between All Might and the intended successor supplies information that the isolated words do not.

The handoff is therefore more specific than a declaration that anyone watching has inherited authority. It connects a particular person's future work to a particular speaker's exhausted capacity. Removing that connection changes the statement from an obligation into an available title. Someone can then claim succession without showing what has actually been entrusted to him.

The film makes that mistake concrete

The official synopsis for You're Next introduces Dark Might as a man who resembles All Might and proclaims himself the new symbol. It also describes him drawing people into a fortress created through his power for his own ambition. The resemblance supplies the appearance of continuity while the conduct gives a reason to dispute it.

Our reading is that this contrast tests succession through the people affected by it. Looking like a predecessor cannot establish a right to command, and admiring him cannot establish that his message was addressed to the admirer. The missing step is permission. A spectator's conviction is evidence of what the spectator believes, not of what the speaker granted.

Neither intention nor reception is the whole test

The obvious objection is that a public symbol cannot control every use of his image. All Might's gesture reaches more people than one private conversation would. It would be unreasonable to treat every listener's appropriation as a failure by the original speaker. The film's premise is useful because it leaves room to distinguish the visibility of a message from responsibility for deliberately misusing it.

Conversely, a good intention does not make context irrelevant. In a quotation reference, the addressee belongs beside the speaker. Omitting Deku leaves the succession claim open in a way the reported scene does not. The answer to who is addressed changes what the statement asks someone to do.

This is a reading of the documented handoff and the film's announced premise, not a review of every event in the film. The evidence supports a precise distinction: receiving a message and receiving a mandate are different acts.