'Breath of the Wild 2': Ganondorf's Return Predicted in Year-Old Theory

Calamity Ganon was destroyed at the end of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but Ganondorf may be making a comeback in Breath of the Wild 2. Nintendo’s new teaser trailer for the game hinted that the classic villain could return in the upcoming sequel, and one theory may have already explained how this makes sense over a year ago. It may also reveal how BotW 2 will end.

The Breath of the Wild theory, which was shared by redditor u/flameylamey over a year ago and resurfaced on Monday, essentially predicts everything that happened in the Botw 2 trailer — and more. The original post was actually focused on Nintendo’s possible plans for a second Breath of the Wild expansion, but it totally lines up with what we saw in that new trailer.

The theory begins by speculating that even after Calamity Ganon was defeated at the end of Breath of the Wild, his influence on Hyrule never went away. Specifically, the Blood Moon that revived monsters in the original game keeps happening, leading Zelda and Link to investigate this mystery. The answer they proposed seems to be confirmed by Nintendo’s teaser trailer for Breath of the Wild 2.

“Eventually it becomes apparent that there is still a source of energy contained deep below Hyrule Castle which Ganon had been using to draw power from,” writes u/flameylamey. “It’s where he appeared from after all. This sends Link/Zelda down into a network of secret tunnels underneath the castle, which would be where the dungeon lies.”

The BotW 2 trailer showed Link and Zelda exploring some underground cavern where the found a corpse that might be Ganondorf. It ends with the dead body somehow being revived before evil reclaims Hyrule Castle, suggesting the events we see are happening deep under the castle. That’s almost exactly what this theory predicted a year ago!

From there, the Breath of the Wild 2 theory gets weird in the best way possible, arguing that when Zelda used her magic to contain Ganon, she actually cast him into another dimension where he’s been gathering power to prepare for an attack on Hyrule. This sets up an exciting new conflict, along with the possibility of inter-dimensional travel that’s been a mainstay in previous Zelda games

Here’s the rest of the theory, which breaks down how this would play out all the way to its climactic ending:

Throughout the dungeon, Zelda is faced with a startling revelation: when she sealed Ganon away he was not destroyed outright. He was simply sent to another dimension where he could no longer cause any harm to Hyrule; but in this dimension he was uncontested, and unfortunately has begun to build an empire, a kind of dark world, where he is now at large and has begun plotting to find a way back to Hyrule. His power has only grown and he has managed to re-obtain his humanoid form. The climax of the DLC story could end with Link and Zelda travelling together into Ganon’s dimension to face him on his own turf and to finally seal him away with the Master Sword, where he will be held indefinitely.

We could totally see this happening in Breath of the Wild 2 almost exactly as described, though considering that Nintendo simply said the game is “in development”, it’s possible even the people making it don’t know how the details of this new Zelda story yet. In that case, Nintendo might want to take a closer look at this very clever BotW 2 theory for themselves.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is launching for Nintendo Switch … eventually.