Blizzard revealed the opening cinematic for World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Midnight, as part of Gamescom Opening Night Live, setting the stakes for the second chapter in the game’s multi-expansion Worldsoul Saga and proving it ain’t easy being a Blood Elf.
The cinematic depicts Xal’atath, the current big bad of the Warcraft universe, commencing a full-scale invasion of the Blood Elf homeland Quel’Thalas. Blood Elf leaders Lor’themar and Liadrin face off against Xal’atath and her shadowy Void beasts, but it soon becomes apparent that they can do little to stop this threat.
Xal’atath’s objective seems to be the Sunwell, a potent font of magic power that has been the target of hostile forces multiple times in Warcraft history. First, Arthas and his Scourge army corrupted the Sunwell to create the lich Kel’thuzad back in 2002’s Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, an event that led to the former High Elves changing their name to Blood Elves to begin with.
Fast forward a few years and disgraced Blood Elf prince Kael’thas Sunstrider would attempt to restore the Sunwell to its former glory…albeit with the goal of using it to open a portal for a Burning Legion invasion. Players put a stop to that back in 2008 as part of WoW’s The Burning Crusade expansion, but with some help from the Draenei, the Sunwell would ultimately be restored as a font of both arcane and holy power.
What Xal’atath wants with the Sunwell isn’t exactly clear, but it certainly can’t be good. Thankfully, the Light seems keen on stopping her and her Void army, and Liadrin and Alliance forces, seemingly empowered by the Light, push back the encroaching foes.
Maria Hamilton, associate design director on WoW, told GameSpot in an interview that while it’s true players have seen the invasion of Quel’Thalas and the Sunwell before, the nature of this fight is quite different. The Light isn’t taking a backseat this time around, and the heroes of Azeroth will have to contend with some never-before-seen Void creatures.
“The Light is quite actively involved in this fight,” Hamilton said. “This is a fight between Light and Void and the Light is there, it is visible and present.”
Xal’atath has become a fan-favorite villain in the WoW community, and this cinematic is the first time players have gotten to truly see just how powerful she is. The cinematic shows she’s capable of inflicting mental anguish with just a blink of the eye, though Lor’themar is eventually able to overcome the psychic attack.
Cinematic director Ben Dai told GameSpot the cinematics team wanted to leave room for imagination when it came to Xal’atath’s true power, choosing to hold back on showing her at her full potential. The less she does, the more powerful she feels, Dai said.
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what she can do,” Dai said. “We want to leave everything else to the game to let the player explore.”
It’s after that initial battle depicted in the cinematic that players will begin the Midnight expansion, which will revamp the Blood Elf lands of Quel’Thalas first introduced in 2007 to be more in line with the modern version of the game. The expansion will also introduce player housing in full, add a new Allied Race in the form of the Haranir, make major changes to transmog, and bring a third, Void-powered specialization for Demon Hunters. WoW’s Midnight expansion does not have an exact release date just yet but is slated to arrive in early 2026.
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