'Breath of the Wild 2' Reversed Audio Teases an Enemy Older Than Ganondorf

Forget Ganondorf, we could be going back to an even more ancient evil in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. Nintendo provided at brief glimpse at its BotW sequel during E3 2019, but fans have already picked apart the teaser trailer to find a bonanza of clues. Most intriguing is the realization that the audio in the BotW 2 trailer is being played in reverse, and watching the trailer backwards may reveal a returning enemy that’s even more threatening than Ganon.

Speculation over what the reversed Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 trailer might reveal has been a popular topic online for several days now, but one fan may have cracked it. In a recent Reddit post, u/ReroFunk lays out a compelling new theory that the new teaser trailer could be a direct reference to Zelda: Twilight Princess and its main villain: Zant.

From there, the theory goes on to speculate that Zant might just be a precursor to the original source of evil in the Zelda series: Demise. The entire thing is complicated, but it also makes a lot of sense. So let’s start at the beginning.

Ready? First, listen to the audio in question from the Breath of the wild 2 trailer. Then, listen to this clip from Twilight Princess. After listening to it ourselves, we agree that they sound very similar even if it’s not a perfect match.

In case you forgot, Zant was a member of the Twili race that lived in the Twilight Realm. After being denied the throne, he took over his home by force before invading the World of Light with Ganon’s help. Zant was defeated by Link and Midna (the true ruler of the Twilight Realm), but before his “death,” he promised to return.

As u/ReroFunk notes, the audio isn’t the only clue that Twilight Princess and Zant, in particular, could play a huge role. Not only does the Breath of the Wild 2 trailer have spooky vibes very much in line with Twilight Princess, but the swirling green light and markings on the walls also feel reminiscent of that game.

The theorist adds:

In trying to figure out which Ganondorf remains the corpse was supposed to be I cross referenced the position all other Ganondorfs die in and none of them die like that. You know who does do that though? ZANT. He does that EXACT pose a LOT. Another possibility is that the hand we see is Zant’s hand! We’ve never seen them because they’re covered by his sleeves.

From there, u/ReroFunk goes one step further, arguing that it wasn’t actually Ganon who gave Zant his powers in Twilight Princess; it was Demise (the final boss in the Zelda franchise origin story game Skyward Sword). This sort of makes sense when you consider that Ganon is basically just a reincarnation of Demise. So when Ganon was exiled to the Twilight Realm, he may have reverted back to his original form.

In that case, Breath of the Wild 2 could bring back the original evil in the Zelda universe. That may sound like a stretch, but it makes sense that the first evil would return in what’s presumably the Zelda game set the furthest into Hyrule’s future. And, as one commenter notes, “Hyrule Castle was built on Skyloft, which fell on Demise.”

So it all fits together, right?