Including the recent reveal ofWorld of Warcraft: Dragonflight, the long-running MMO has featured nine expansions since its release in 2004, and each one has been accompanied by a cinematic trailer. These trailers are considered a high point for Blizzard, even its earliest trailers boasting high cinematic quality, drumming up excitement for the content to come.
With so many expansions and therefore so many trailers, each bringing something different to the table, it’s a tough task to rank them all by quality, but it can be done. These are all theWorld of Warcraftexpansion reveal trailers, ordered from worst to best.
10Shadowlands
TheShadowlandstrailer features a battle between fallen Warchief, Sylvanas Windrunner, and current Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon. It’s a decent fight pitting Bolvar’s brutal hammer strikes against Sylvanas' speed and cunning, but that’s the extent of the trailer.
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This one feels most out of place because the action in this expansion reveal has nothing to do with the actual content of the expansion.Shadowlandsis full ofstriking landscapes and unusual creatures,but the reveal trailer includes none of them. It’s just a known character attacking another known character in a known setting, showing off nothing new.
9World of Warcraft
Though not technically an expansion, the original launch ofWorld of Warcraftincluded a reveal trailer as well. It’s not bad, either, still looking nice today despite its age. It depicts a variety of player charactersin different scenes around the world.
It’s a good introduction to the game basics, but it’s also a bit simple. It feels a little less professional than the modern cinematics, as well; some shots take too long, and others cut in awkward places.
8Legion
Later Warcraft cinematics tend to feature scenes of warfare, as the game’s name suggests. The Legion trailer is a narration of Alliance King Varian’s letter to his son as he battles demons alongside Sylvanas.
Despite the high stakes,the magnitude of the enemy forceisn’t really communicated. Varian and Sylvanas mainly fight against low-level demons and their own crashing airships. Varian also falls in the water and maybe drowns, but then doesn’t. It feels like there’s no clear aim, and doesn’t communicate much about the expansion, either.
7Mists of Pandaria
This trailer opens on a fairly standard Alliance-Horde battle at sea before shifting to a mysterious new land. The shift is a good depiction of the expansion’s main themes, of a long-running, perhaps pointless conflict arriving in a beautiful new land and messing it up.
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The Pandaren viewpoint is presented as superior, as the monk beats up the two warmongers, which reflects the messages in the actual expansion. It’s solid thematically, and offers a decent fight scene as well, but it’s a bit jokier than usualWarcraft. That’s not necessarily bad, but it does feel odd compared to the other trailers.
6Warlords of Draenor
This reveal is a dramatic re-enactment of a key moment inWarcrafthistory, the original corruption of the orcs, but re-done as a rejection of the demonic blood. On its own, this is a very cool look at an alternateWarcrafthistory, although only players who already knew the lore would understand what was going on.
In addition to the pivotal moment, the trailer also includes a look at the Iron Horde technologies that make up the expansion’s antagonistic force. It’s a good all-around trailer for those in the know, but it’s a shamethe orcs became evil marauders on their own anyway.
5Dragonflight
This trailer is presented as a self-enclosed story follows the last surviving Watcher, tasked with revealing the Dragon Isles. It’s a compelling short story on its own, depicting one person’s struggle against difficult odds in a desperate situation, and all without any dialogue from the lead character.
The trailer ends with a look at the Isles themselves,and a glimpse at what “dragon flight” could be like in-game.Overall, it’s a well-done trailer, even if the plot is almost exactly the same as the Mei cinematic fromOverwatch.
4The Burning Crusade
World of Warcraft’s first expansion comes with a reveal focusing on its main antagonist, Illidan Stormrage. Hyping up a primary antagonist is a great way to excite players for a new expansion. The trailer also showcases a major expansion selling point: the new races, even giving a glimpse into their racial identities.
For example, the monstrous Draeneiemerges from the shadows to read from his holy tome,and the beautiful Blood Elf plays with a magical creature before murdering it and siphoning its mana. The trailer even includes the characters from the originalWorld of Warcraftreveal trailer as a neat Easter egg.
3Wrath of the Lich King
Compared to some of the more varied trailers, this one is simple but effective: Lich King Arthas wakes up and goes for a walk. This is the ultimate version of the “villain hype” trailer style that started with Burning Crusade, as the focus is entirely onthe antagonist and his abilities.
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He doesn’t even have to say anything; the trailer is accompanied by old words from Arthas' father, meant to encourage a young prince and now twisted to emphasize the Lich King’s actions. As with the Dragonflight trailer, a strong story doesn’t necessarily need any dialogue at all.
2Cataclysm
Another villain-focused trailer, this one features antagonist Deathwing also waking up and going for a walk. The villain himself is not as imposing as Arthas. Although seeing the armor bolted into Deathwing’s living flesh is extremely cool, he still has to say “I’m gonna get you” in the trailer, while Arthas just being there is threatening enough to carry the wholeLich Kingtrailer.
Where theCataclysmtrailer excels, however, is the spectacle. Viewers see several classic areas inWorld of Warcraft,a nice memory of the old world, before being obliterated by Deathwing’s emergence. It’s no exaggeration, either: going to these areas in-game reveals the events in the trailer to be accurate. It’s a terrifying spectacle, and one that truly captures the expansion’s cataclysmic scope.
1Battle for Azeroth
This is one of Blizzard’s most recent expansion trailers, and it shows in both quality and scope. It’s a simple trailer depicting a battle between Alliance and Horde, but it encapsulates the strengths of both factions while looking beautiful to boot. Sylvanas uses her archery and dark magic, Dwarven siege equipment pounds at the walls, a Troll shaman lashes out with lightning and follows up with blade and shield. King Anduin, a priest, also gets a big moment when he uses Holy magic to heal and fortify his entire army, notable because it’s rare for a healer to get an action hero moment.
The trailer is pureWarcraft,just as the expansion promised a return to Alliance vs. Horde.It’s unfortunate that Sylvanas was planning on betraying her people the whole time, making her “hero moment” here a complete falsehood.
