How to predict future expansions

[username993720]

Ever since Mists of Pandaria (and even as early as Wrath of the Lich King) Blizzard has been dropping hints about their upcoming expansions in their Cinematic Trailers and last raid of an Expansion.

Wrath of the Lich King
For example, in Wrath of the Lich King cinematic trailer, what can you spot beside the undead Humans? an undead Dragon (Sindragosa). And, what was the last raid of the expansion? The Ruby Sanctum - a dragon-themed raid. It all hinted at Cataclysm and its focus on Deathwing and the Dragonflights.




Mists of Pandaria
In the Mists of Pandaria cinematic trailer, what is there aside from the Pandaren and Pandaria? an Orc and a Human fighting - which, is a tribute to 'Warcraft 1: Orcs & Humans'. While it doesn't necessarily point to Draenor being the main area in the following expansion, it does match the Garrison system. Even though we went to Draenor and sided with the Orcs and Draenei, the Garrisons were Orcish structures for the Horde, and Human structures for the Alliance.




And, what was the last raid of the expansion? Siege of Orgrimmar - a heavily Orc-themed raid - which, pointed out the next expansion's heavy focus on Orcs.



Warlords of Draenor
In the Warlords of Draenor cinematic trailer, what can you spot other than the Orcs? Mannoroth, a demon (and Gul'dan's demon blood cup). And, what was the last raid of the expansion? hellfire Citadel - a heavily demonic-themed raid. it all hinted at what was coming next - Legion.





Legion
In the Legion cinematic trailer, what is there beside the demonic invasion of the Burning Legion? the Horde (Sylvanas) and the Alliance (Varian), which hinted at the faction conflict of Battle for Azeroth.




And, what was the last raid of the expansion? Antorus, the Burning Throne - which, was a Titan-themed raid (alongside a demonic theme). It didn't, necessarily, hint at a titan-themed expansion, but it definitely hinted at the whole Azeroth (a Titan) and Azerite storyline of Battle for Azeroth.



Battle for Azeroth
In the Battle for Azeroth cinematic trailer, what can be seen other than the faction conflict? the dichotomy of Light (Anduin) and Shadow (Sylvanas). This dichotomy can be seen on the cover of 'Before the Storm' novel, as well. This implies that a future expansion will deal with the forces of Light and Shadow (Void) and the clash between them (and yes, i know Sylvanas represents Death and not the Void, but it's clearly a shadowy Void and not a greenish Death animation).
Patch 8.3, "Visions of N'zoth", did have a Light (sanity) and Void (insanity) theme to it.





There are, obviously, other methods to predict future expansions, like the Reins of the Grove Warden (which, hinted at the Highmountain Tauren and the Emerald Nightmare), the Naz'jatar Blood Serpent (which hinted at Naz'jatar coming in patch 8.2), the datamined Kul'tiran questing armor in Legion (hinting at Kul'tiras), the Kul'tiran & Zandalari NPCs in Azsuna (which, hinted at Kul'tiras and Zandalar), the Island Expedition's Black Dragon Scale (which, is hinting at the Dragon Isles next expansion) and even the Worldbreaker Mount (which, is probably hinting at a dragon-theme next expansion). There are many more other hints, which i cannot remember right now. Even the 'The Sylverian Dreamer' shop mount ended up hinting at Ardenweald. But, unlike these little hints, the cinematics and last raids are a more consistent type of hints, which are easier to decipher and predict based on them.

Update: Even though i was, completely, wrong about Shadowlands, i think Light/Void expansion will still happen in the future. Nonetheless, i'm gonna try and predict the expansion after it:

Shadowlands
When looking at the Shadowlands cinematic trailer, the thing that pops out the most is Bolvar's scorched body - in contrast with the icy atmosphere of Icecrown. His scorched body reminds me of Deathwing, who had fiery cracks all over his body (like how his WotLK loading screen kinda hinted at Deathwing). But, Deathwing is dead and is unlikely to come back. So, who exactly can it hint at? Wrathion, the son of Deathwing. He is pretty much alive, was given an updated model, and his corrupted dragon model resembles Deathwing (with fire coming out of his body). That means that the next expansion might revolve around him and the Dragonflights (which, fits with him searching for the Dragon Isles). Moreover, Bolvar's fiery hammer (with the skull on it) reminds me of Ragnaros, which can, potentially, hint at him featuring next expansion (which, does line up with the Dark Iron Dwarves' recruitment scenario - telling us of the attempts to revive him). Moreover, the chromatic color of the Shadowlands could imply at the involvement of the Bronze Dragonflight next expansion. Sylvanas' purple magic and chains could, either, hint at the Void's or at the Twilight's Hammer's involvement.
With Zereth Mortis being the last patch of the expansion, its looks could imply at an Emerald Dream content.



















Update: well, i was right about the Dragon theme hinted by the Shadowlands cinematic.
I'll attempt to predict a future expansion based off of the Dragonflight cinematic.

Dragonflight
There's an obvious Titanic theme to the Dragonflight cinematic - from what seems to be Titanic Watchers and the Greek architecture of Tyrhold.

There's also a Light theme, seen through the magic conjured by the Titanic Watchers' architecture at Tyrhold. And, of course, Tyr himself being mentioned. As the deity of both the Knights of the Silver Hand and the Vrykul, he might be a Light Titanic Watcher. This could also hint at the Bronze Dragonflight's magic, as it shares the same coloration.


The Felstorm's Emerald coloration could hint at the involvement of the Burning Legion with the Emerald Dream. For example, the Sayaad.

And, finally, there's a Life theme with the Emerald colors in the waters at the beginning of the Cinematic, as well as the moss growing on the Titanic Watcher.


A possible hint at Elementals featuring more prominently in the future, with the recurring theme of lava and the jagged ice spikes standing out in the frame.


I get some Zereth Mortis vibes from the inside design of Tyrhold.


The different colors obviously reference the different flights but could also point to different colors of the Light cosmic force in future content.

Patch 10.2, Guardians of the dream, resembles patch 4.2, Rage of the Firelands, a lot. Perhaps the next expansion will have something to do with the Elemental planes.


Edit: i was wrong about the cinematic predicting the next expansion. It predicted the expansion's own themes, like Fractures in Time, Guardians of the Dream and the rivalry between Vyranoth and Fyrakk.

The War Within
Since we already know what the next expansions will be, i will try to analyze the cinematic for any clues about the upcoming expansions.

This reminds me of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, when Malthael drained Tyrael's soul.

Many people think this pose of Anduin is a tribute to the Arthas' pose in the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic.

But, it can also be attributed to Tyrael in the Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls cinematic.

In both cases the sword is aimed at someone. In Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls it goes through Malthael. In The War Within, however, it is stopped by Thrall's leather strap.


They both sport a similar shawl and wear plate armor underneath.


The question is, what is the comparison between Anduin and Tyrael for? Will he go against his own kind, with Turalyon being Imperius? Will he get his Light back the way Tyrael got his powers back? Will he turn into a Kyrian (notice how blue he is in the flashback)?

The shots of Azeroth calling out to Anduin and Thrall look extremely similar to Fyrakk's prison when he breaks free, implying that Azeroth is imprisoned by the Titans. The question is, why does it only look like Fyrakk's one? Is Azeroth a fiery being? If so, it will match Dragonflight's Guardian's of the Dream's focus on the elemental plane of fire. Perhaps, Azeroth is an elemental imprisoned like the other Elemental Lords in an Elemental plane. Meanwhile, Iridikron's prison highly resembles the Last Titan's logo, further solidifying the theory.

[Raetary]

Most of those "hints" is you literally just stretching some random scene you saw in a cinematic and try to fit in your view.

[Wangming]

I don't know. Some of these hints are streching it a bit. Datamining is still the most solid way to get the next expansion.

[Nevcairiel]

Finding hints and connections after the fact for past releases is always easy, and makes for a weak argument only.
People have tried to do this for the future, and we rarely had any half-accurate guesses at best.

Stuff like the datamined Kul'tiran armor is of course a clear indicator, since that was just mistakenly included in an earlier version of the game then intended. This isn't much of a "prediction" as such, but just a leak provided by Blizzard.

For your predictions - Tinker has been guessed for years now, and maybe one day it might happen. It feels to me that if we have all the mechagnome stuff now already, maybe its too late to introduce it after that. Shadow Hunters are a very troll-centric culture, and Alliance doesn't really have any races with an affinity towards the voodoo stuff they are all about, so that would need some serious lore mangling.

Which brings me straight to factions - for gameplay reasons further splits between factions will never happen. Some races may distance themselves in lore, but in-game there will never be any seperation of the existing structures. If anything happens, the existing seperation will go away to some degree, not new borders being drawn.

Graphics? Just no. While WoW was originally based on the WC3 engine to some degree, that was 15 years go. The engine has evolved, the game has evolved, as have the graphics. There won't be any major broad sweeping changes. Something like that would take up the art team for years.

[Fistfighter]

haha your hints are like

"remember the green plains of mulgore in vanilla cinematic?? well that green is a reference to Kael'thas's green eyes in TBC, it all comes together"

[iamthedevil]

Look at which art assets are new and out of place. That will lead you somewhere.

[P for Pancetta]

I think the story line is a much better predictor.

We're currently fighting old golds and the void, and we're using the power of the dragons to empower our heart to new heights in order to protect Azeroth, also we're seeing the horde and alliance come together after a conflict not necessarily out of necessity like what happened when the legion came back but more so because of the tiresome nature of war which made certain people come to new understandings about the value of peace.

So my prediction would be that the next xpac isn't focused on a horde vs alliance conflict, but instead is an expansion where both factions come together to fight a new powerful enemy (we might think n'zoth is the big bad but it might just happen that he's pulling an azshara on us and his intention is to summon a much greater evil into our universe). dragons will probably be involved as we need to aid them to find their place in the new world or perhaps empower them again. also wrathion is spying on us and he is somewhat of an idiot that'll probably end up doing something bad for the sake of doing good, and he'll have to make up for it in some redemption arc war-campaign style quest line.

ofcourse everything can change after the first phase, the horde and alliance might go to war again in patch 9.1

[JacobusRex]

Look at which art assets are new and out of place. That will lead you somewhere.

Pretty much this, as it's part of the datamining thing. More-so than shout text or theorycrafting, art assets are the most set-in-stone things that you can draw conclusions from. That said, even art assets can change, but I doubt they change much once datamined in full color and form.

[username993720]

haha your hints are like

"remember the green plains of mulgore in vanilla cinematic?? well that green is a reference to Kael'thas's green eyes in TBC, it all comes together"

It's not randomly pointing at things in the cinematics. it's pointing out the things that aren't entirely relevant or connected to the theme of the trailer. these "out-of-place" stuff are the hints you are looking for in a cinematic.

yes, of course many of these are realizations in retrospect. i'm not a psychic.

yet, these things are still hinting at something in the upcoming expansions.

the reason i didn't include Vanilla, TBC and Cataclysm trailers is because i couldn't find anything in them.

[PaperKiwiNA]

I've seen a lot of theory crafters out there who try to "predict" what will happen next, however, more times than not they just end up misinterpreting one thing into another and going on a tangent saying "it all makes sense because, because, because" but in reality, they end up psyching themselves out because they become desperate trying to connect any two dots that they can find. There's a trick we do as dungeon masters in D&D where we will tell the story session by session sometimes not even knowing how it will end or how everything is connected it isn't until later we sit down and figure out how the story is all connected up to this point and what makes the most sense with the least amount of plot holes, and boom everyone is having fun killing the dragon that was a barmaid who they helped find her lost one-eyed cat. Nice post though.

[Briselody]

yet, these things are still hinting at something in the upcoming expansions.

They're really, really not though. You're reaching hard.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

OR

Blizzard does this throughout their current expansion , giving hints

[Kokolums]

Dragons slowly creeping into the story (quite literally if you have noticed Wrathion's agents in stealth watching you perform certain tasks) seem to suggest a dragon xpac is imminent.

[Wangming]

Dragons slowly creeping into the story (quite literally if you have noticed Wrathion's agents in stealth watching you perform certain tasks) seem to suggest a dragon xpac is imminent.

Dunno how we can go from Azshara and N'Zoth to suddenly dragons, but it would be welcome if they did something with Wrathion finally.

[vertigo12]

Dragons slowly creeping into the story (quite literally if you have noticed Wrathion's agents in stealth watching you perform certain tasks) seem to suggest a dragon xpac is imminent.

3rd expac is about Dragons.

If you base Legion as the 1st as to TBC and WoD to be the classics for Draenor/Outland.

Vanilla WoD
TBC Legion
WotlK BfA
Cata 9.0
MoP 10.0

[Sanguinerd]

Those hints.. jesus christ

I don't think Blizzard is hinting at any of these things.. except PERHAPS some graphical changes but they're changing things constantly anyway.

[TigTone]

Side stories are the best way imo.

[Zantos]

It's not randomly pointing at things in the cinematics. it's pointing out the things that aren't entirely relevant or connected to the theme of the trailer. these "out-of-place" stuff are the hints you are looking for in a cinematic.

No, they are relevant. Gul'dan was trying to convert the orcs using demon blood. It was the entire focal point of how the iron horde became so fractured and fell apart.

In the Legion cinematic, that didn't hit at a faction war. It showed that both sides were working together to try to combat an evil that threatened them all. You literally see this the entire expansion.

In wrath, the dragon was one of the Lich Kings biggest minions. She was a boss in the last raid. It demonstrated that not even the dragons where out of his reach or power.

The orc vs human in the pandaren was just that homage to the original game. Not only that, but the last raid was built up through out the expansion as we saw Garrosh fall further and further into madness.

You're reading far too much into things. Its that simple. Every cinematic makes sense in the context of the expansion.

[Puddlejumper]

There's not a lot of doubt at this point that the next expansion will have a pretty strong Old God connection to it, I don't think. I really don't think the opening cinematic does much to point to that, though.

From a story structure point of view, it really makes sense that in some respect or other, N'Zoth is actually going to win in 8.3, and from the implication that there's going to be a level squish soon, it makes sense that we'll be dealing with the fallout of some kind of significant loss, as well. All of that suggests to me that 9.0 is going to be Black Empire. The fact that Legion left us with the Void Lords threatening us from the depths of the universe is another hint in that direction, and I could honestly see Sylvanas siding with them, but even with all of that, BfA's opening cinematic just doesn't factor in, for me. Sylvanas has always gone with the black and purple color scheme, as opposed to green, and she's always done the banshee wail thing. The next expansion could be about exploding wood and it would bear as much obvious relation to that scene.

[Niwes]

Most of those "hints" is you literally just stretching some random scene you saw in a cinematic and try to fit in your view.

yep. thought the same. you can interpret EVRYTHING into EVERYTHING, if needed. there is very less argument in this post.

- - - Updated - - -

It's not randomly pointing at things in the cinematics. it's pointing out the things that aren't entirely relevant or connected to the theme of the trailer. these "out-of-place" stuff are the hints you are looking for in a cinematic.

yes, of course many of these are realizations in retrospect. i'm not a psychic.

yet, these things are still hinting at something in the upcoming expansions.

the reason i didn't include Vanilla, TBC and Cataclysm trailers is because i couldn't find anything in them.

i had say, just prove it by looking at last raid and tell us what nex xpac is all about. but the problem here is, we already all know whats happening in the next xpac (nzoth, black empire, ...). so... hmmm