Blizzard president rules out WoW expansion theme players were convinced was already locked in

Every two years, Blizzard reveals a new World of Warcraft expansion at Blizzcon. Normally, players are impatient and like to speculate what the next expansion will be. This time around, players were convinced they knew what the theme would be, but it turns out they were completely wrong.

On Sept. 3, Blizzard president, Mike Ybarra, confirmed the upcoming WoW expansion won’t feature pirates.

This all comes from a player ranting on social media about what the Return to Azeroth would actually mean. For all those unfamiliar with the term, Return to Azeroth is a potential upcoming expansion that would focus on rebuilding Azeroth, giving a new coat of paint to the old world, and finally solving problems like the big sword in Silithus.

While some believe Azeroth will be fully revamped, others think we’ll get a new version of Azeroth at Avaloren—a new mega continent. According to this player, the Return to Azeroth theme should be all about rediscovering the old and beloved places, and not giving us a new continent featuring a load of pirates.

The first mention of Avaloren was in Patch 10.0.7. Avaloren was hinted at in documents found in Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr and in Watcher Perethales’ letter to the Prime Designate. WoW players interpreted this as a hint to a new expansion. According to these documents, Avaloren is set on the other side of Azeroth.

WoW players truly believed Avaloren was the setting for the next expansion after seeing Blizzard putting more and more pirate and aquatic-themed mounts and transmogs in the shop. The Seafarer Pack is now on sale with a 50 percent discount and includes the ship mount—The Dreadwake. Besides that, the mount for subscribing for six months is currently the fish mount—Wondrous Wavewhisker.

But all these hopes are now gone because Mike Ybarra confirmed this will not be the case (or at least the next expansion won’t include pirates).

If you ask me, the next expansion will surely be based around the Void, simply because players have received many hints over the course of expansion, including mentions of the fifth Old God in Patch 10.0.7, Galakrond harvesting Void powers and Xal’atath returning in Patch 10.1.5, and the Azq’roth Time Rift event that showed players what Azeroth would look like if the Black Empire took over.