We've now had 4 weeks of amazing animated shorts come in the form of the Afterlives series, with last week's Revendreth entry seemingly closing out the run. However, many have speculated that there might be more to the series, as we are left with one big part of the Shadowlands unrepresented, namely the end-game zone of the Maw, where we'll be spending a lot of our time, especially with Torghast waiting in there. The Maw is also home to the main villain of the expansion, the Jailer, who, with the help of Sylvanas, actually set everything that's happening in the Shadowlands, everything that we've been shown in the Afterlives shorts, into motion.

So why would we think that there could be a 5th, unannounced short coming and why today?

Well, while we do know when Shadowlands is launching, we don't yet know when the pre-expansion patch is, although at this point it seems almost certain it's on October 6th/7th. This leaves us with this week and the next before it hits, and with the 4 Afterlives shorts already set up to run each week on Thursday, it seems more likely that, if it's coming, it might be today.



The short's existence itself, other than just making a lot of sense, has a bit more going for it as well, and it might actually be a much bigger project, it might not even be animated. Recently we found out that there's a cinematic-level render of the Jailer himself ready, as the cover of the latest issue of PCGamer magazine featured him on the cover, and it seems somewhat unlikely that Blizzard would create the character in such detail just for that. Now, that doesn't mean that this would be an Afterlives Maw entry, nor does it mean that it will even come out before the expansion, but it's certainly pointing in the direction of a brand new cinematic, akin to Old Solider. Alternatively, this might have just been for the magazine, or perhaps for an ad for the expansion, but those both seem less likely. It is however possible that Blizzard don't want to show too much of the main villain off quite yet, as most of us who avoid spoilers and datamining where we can don't yet really know what's going on in the Shadowlands and just who exactly the Jailer is or what his plans are, and so Blizz might want to avoid showing off too much. In that scenario the mystery cinematic will be coming later in the expansion, or perhaps within the main Shadowlands campaign itself.



As for the topic of the cinematic, it might focus on the Jailer and Sylvanas, explaining a little how we ended up where we are at the start of Shadowlands. It could also explore the Maw's backstory, which is directly linked to the Jailer himself, the current rulers of the Shadowlands and their relationship. It might also be a lot more mysterious and focus on the zone almost exclusively, taking a different character as the protagonist, either a familiar face or a new one like Devos or Ara'lon, and have the Jailer show up at the end as the big reveal.

The options for when we might be seeing the cinematic, if it exists, would be:

Today, as a big close to the Afterlives series, in a pretty unprecedented move for Blizzard, which would build a lot of hype and be a great surprise (also, it would ease the pain of waiting for the pre-patch). Just ahead of the expansion's launch, to drum up the hype for the start of Shadowlands. Somewhere down the line in the Shadowlands story, when players either come back to the Maw at max level, or maybe after the raid is defeated (possibly on Mythic). Later on in the expansion.

Whatever happens (or doesn't) today at 7PM CEST, it's still looking relatively likely we'll be getting a Jailer-themed cinematic at some point, and while it may not be part of the Afterlives series, or even focus on the Maw, it's definitely going to be high quality, as the ones we've gotten so far have really been impressive. Also, bonus hype: perhaps Schrodinger's pre-patch also gets a surprise release date announcement right after the cinematic.

