On February 18, 2026, Blizzard Entertainment released a new animated short film for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, World of Warcraft: Midnight.
This short has an art and animation style similar to The War Within, which focused on Alleria Windrunner, except this one is focused on Liadrin, an important character players will ally with in the upcoming Midnight expansion.
The animated short gives players a glimpse of Liadrin's backstory. She was a kind-hearted priest who became a retribution-seeking Paladin after suffering the loss of her home and father when the Undead Scourge invaded Quel'Thalas during Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos.
Years later, Liadrin became the Matriarch of Silvermoon's Blood Knights and is currently defending the city from Xal'atath's invading forces to steal and corrupt the power of the Blood Elves' magical Sunwell.
Like the Alleria short, the Liadrin short has some gorgeously detailed animation and tries to maintain the dark, gritty tone that many Warcraft fans fear has been lost since the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight expansion.
Even the recent, motion-comic-style Xal'atath 'Supremacy' short proves that Blizzard Entertainment is still capable of telling dark stories within the Warcraft universe.
However, to me, what's important is if the execution of these stories lands, regardless of tone. For example, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is one of the game's darker expansions for its grim depictions of the afterlife and diabolical characters like Denathrius.
Yet much of Shadowlands' storytelling and handling of fan-favorite characters like Sylvanas Windrunner were so poorly executed and invalidated so much established lore that it was one of the main reasons many long-time players left World of Warcraft for Final Fantasy XIV in 2021.
As for how the story is being handled right now? I'm sort of split on it.
I like how we're revisiting like Silvermoon, but completely reimagned with new areas and graphical fidelity. Plus, as someone who played Warcraft 3 back in the day, I love that the Voidwalkers are the central antagonists of World of Warcraft: Midnight.
We barely know anything about these creatures, so this expansion can give players a chance to finally learn about their culture and history, along with learning more about how the Void works in general.
On the other hand, the overall story of World of Warcraft is still almost impossible to get into for newcomers, despite Blizzard Entertainment's efforts with the new Catch Up Experience feature and Lorewalker Cho quests.
There's just too much lore and stories for the player to keep up with and invest in. Plus, there's no proper prelude arc that introduces the player to the world and slowly gets to know its characters like Final Fantasy 14 does.
In World of Warcraft, you're just inserted into the world as a hardened champion that's expected to already know everything that's going on in the story.
However, aside from a total reboot of the game's story (which is not really viable or possible at this point in WoW), this problem of making the story accessible for new players can be potentially solved...by making a TV Show with the animation style and direction of the Liadrin and Alleria shorts.
BLIZZARD GIVE ME A WARCRAFT ANIMATED SERIES AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!!!!! https://t.co/WVrn5pkqq6 pic.twitter.com/HVEnYCBtJxFebruary 18, 2026
With a World of Warcraft TV show featuring adaptations of the Warcraft RTS games and World of Warcraft expansions, you can give newcomers a condensed and entertaining way to experience Warcraft's entire story without making them do weeks' worth of homework reading Wikipedia pages online.
Fans are already clamouring for a World of Warcraft animated series, and silver screen adaptations of video games are all the rage these days, like the Fallout TV series and Netflix's Castlevania series, so why not make one? I know I would watch it.
In the meantime, while we wait for dreams of a World of Warcraft animated series to come true, we'll have to deal with Xal'atath and her Voidwalker armies when World of Warcraft: Midnight launches on March 2, 2026 (or February 26, for those with early access privileges for pre-ordering the Epic Edition) for PC.
We'd like to hear your thoughts
Would you like to see a World of Warcraft animated TV Show? Do you have any ideas on how Blizzard Entertainment could improve Warcraft's narrative and make it more accessible for newcomers?
If you have any thoughts on the matter, let them be heard in the comments below.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
