Home » Latest » Nintendo » Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – First Look Trailer – Nintendo E3 2019

Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – First Look Trailer – Nintendo E3 2019

5

InfoSearched 57 0 Nintendo

9.5

SaveSavedRemoved 0

Nintendo just told Hyrule’s darkest secret is still buried underground.

Nintendo saved its biggest swing for last at E3 2019. After a full Nintendo Direct built around Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a fresh Zelda game for mobile-adjacent nostalgia, the broadcast closed with an 80-second teaser confirming that a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development for Switch. No title, no release window, no gameplay reveal — just a mood, and it’s a grim one.

• Nintendo confirmed on June 11, 2019 that a full sequel to Breath of the Wild is in development for Nintendo Switch, closing out its E3 2019 Direct.
• The 80-second teaser shows Link and Zelda exploring caverns beneath Hyrule, where a mummified corpse pinned by a glowing hand suddenly opens crimson eyes as Hyrule Castle rises into the sky.
• Nintendo Treehouse’s Bill Trinen confirmed it’s a standalone sequel rather than DLC, and producer Eiji Aonuma said the team had too many new ideas to fit into add-on content.

Teaser Footage Reveals Key Details

The footage opens far from the sun-soaked plains that defined the original 2017 release. Link and Zelda descend into subterranean passages beneath Hyrule with a pack beast in tow, poking through tendrils of glowing green energy and swirling dark malice. The source of that malice is a mummified body pinned to the ground by a disembodied, glowing hand — imagery straight out of survival horror rather than the pastoral tone Breath of the Wild built its identity on.

The sequence escalates fast. The corpse’s eyes snap open in a flash of crimson, the cavern shakes, and Hyrule Castle is shown tearing itself loose from the ground and rising into the sky. On-screen text then confirms simply: “The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now in development.” That’s the entire reveal — no combat demo, no map, no subtitle.

“The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is now in development.”

Standalone Sequel, Not DLC

The most important clarification came after the Direct ended. Nintendo Treehouse senior product marketing manager Bill Trinen told reporters the project is a full standalone sequel, not additional downloadable content bolted onto the existing game. That distinction matters for a title that already shipped two substantial expansion passes for the original — this is a new build, not another add-on.

Series producer Eiji Aonuma backed that up in post-E3 interviews, explaining the development team generated far more new gameplay and world ideas than DLC packs could hold, which is why the studio committed to a full sequel instead. It’s the same instinct that’s driven other major reveals this cycle, from the tonal reinvention on display in the Battlefield 2042 reveal trailer to the world-building ambitions teased in Hogwarts Legacy’s reveal trailer — publishers increasingly using E3-style teasers to signal scope before showing a frame of gameplay.

Reading the Darker Tone

Breath of the Wild leaned into open-world serenity — climb anything, cook anything, wander anywhere. This teaser inverts that mood almost entirely, trading golden fields for cavern shadows and a reanimated corpse. Whether that translates into darker gameplay systems or is simply a marketing swing to signal “this isn’t more of the same” is something Nintendo left unanswered. No mechanics were disclosed, and no release window was given, according to reporting following the Direct.

What is clear is the geography hint: Hyrule Castle rising off its foundation and the underground cavern setting both suggest the sequel will physically restructure the map players spent hundreds of hours memorizing in 2017, rather than simply reusing it as a backdrop.

Nintendo didn’t put a name or a date on the project, and it likely won’t for a while — Aonuma’s comments suggest the team is still building out ideas rather than locking a scope. For now, the only confirmed image the public has is a floating castle and a corpse with red eyes, and that’s exactly the kind of teaser Nintendo wants fans arguing about until the next Direct.