World of Warcraft's next expansion revealed: Shadowlands

World of Warcraft's next expansion, Shadowlands, has been announced. The months of rumors and leaks turned out to be accurate, as Shadowlands will wrap up the faction war of Battle for Azeroth as both sides unite to fight a far bigger threat: The Old Gods and their evil masters, The Void Lords.

Revealed during the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2019, the cinematic trailer opens with Sylvanas returning to Icecrown Citadel, where the current Lich King Bolvar resides. Sylvanas and Bolvar battle one another, before Sylvanas takes his crown and claims it for herself. Using the Lich King's crown, Sylvanas tears open reality, revealing what appears to be the Shadowlands, an alternate dimension of death and decay. Players will be familiar with this realm because it's where you're sent to when you die.

One of the key features of Shadowlands will be choosing a Covenant, aligning with one of the different factions that call it home like the Valkyr. Of course, Shadowlands will also include several new zones, which we'll have more on shortly. "Shadowlands is an expansion built around choice," Hazzikostas said.

At the end of the gameplay trailer, it also looks like we got our first-ever look at a Void Lord, the legendary monsters who represent the greatest threat to Azeroth (and the puppetmasters of the Old Gods).

World of Warcraft has an entire panel dedicated to its new expansion later this afternoon at 3:30pm PT. We'll have more info for you then.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

(Image credit: Blizzard)

(Image credit: Blizzard)
Steven Messner

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.

Latest in World of Warcraft
A goblin with sharp teeth, wearing goggles, lets out a mischievous cackle in WoW's latest patch: Undermine(d).
The hooligan hacker guild that tore up WoW's newest raid (twice) just posted video evidence of the whole thing, and it's got me feeling weirdly nostalgic
Concept art of WoW's upcoming player housing system, showing a warm homestead with a welcoming figure in shade.
WoW flexes its MMO player housing system in a new blog post, and it really might just beat FF14's dated furniture placement into the dirt
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
World of Warcraft guild uses exploits to get world 'first' on the game's new raid, gets banned, puts its name backwards and does it again
A World of Warcraft dwarf and human character standing in front of the entrance to a delve dungeon
WoW's nerfed its poor Delve companion into a dwarf-shaped crater after his tank spec made them too easy, and people aren't happy
Three goblins from the goblin cartels smile confidently in WoW: The War Within's Undermine(d) patch.
WoW's new Undermine(d) patch had a live jazz ensemble recording its big-band bangers, and they got to improvise: 'Usually those were the takes that ended up in the final version'
Two goblins go for a joyride via the D.R.I.V.E system in World of Warcraft: The War Within.
WoW's new DRIVE system probably won't be used outside of its GTA-style goblin zone, but devs are 'going to think about' recycling its parts elsewhere
Latest in News
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam