Blizzard Reveals New Artwork - Inarius and Jailer Commented On
New artworks featuring characters from Blizzard Entertainment's games have sparked lively discussions, delighting (or annoying) fans of some series.
Blizzard Entertainment has released new so-called key art, i.e. image used on posters, advertisements, etc.. They were prepared by Will Murai from Phoenix Labs and posted on ArtStation along with separate images for each character.
The graphic shows Jaina, Jailer, Inarius, a "zerged" Kerrigan, Sojourn and Elite Tauren Chieftain (or ETC for short). You can examine it below.
Will Murai | Blizzard Entertainment.
Old Blizzcon or just an art expo?
Some Internet users speculated whether this might be a graphic prepared for the BlizzCon event or perhaps the last year's canceled edition of that event.
Will Murai has worked with Blizzard on several occasions, helping to produce, among other things, the trailer for Kirko from Overwatch 2. To his credit, he also has key art for previous editions of BlizzCon. In each case, they were clearly described as being associated with the event, which cannot be said of the new artwork.
Nevertheless, Murai's new artwork has a format matching the old Blizzcon "posters." We have representatives of Blizzard's major brands and a reference to the company's "classic" titles.
However, speculation about the purpose of the key art did not last long. Users on Reddit found it as the artwork advertising Blizzard Entertainment's presence at LightBox Expo 2022, which begins tomorrow in Pasadena, California.
Jailer delayed, Inarius confirmed
Nevertheless, gamers continued to come up with various theories, arguing that perhaps it really was an artwork prepared with last year's BlizzCon in mind, and after the event was canceled, Blizzard simply found another use for it.
Many fans were puzzled by the presence of three characters. World of Warcraft is represented by Jailer, whom players faced in Shadowlands. Some Internet users point out that this is a rather curious decision. WoW is already expecting another, dragon expansion, so why is the "ambassador" of the game a villain from the old DLC?
Less suspicious was the presence of Inarius as the representative of Diablo. This makes sense insofar as in Diablo IV we will face Lilith, who has a shared history with this fallen archangel. It is also possible that he is the one we saw in the trailer for the fourth game, as fans have long speculated about. Nevertheless, this information has not been confirmed so far... at least until now.
ETC and HotS, or a low blow
The last not quite expected guest is none other than the Elite Tauren Chieftain. As Hearthstone and Warcraft already have other representatives (Jaina and Jailer, respectively), he can only be associated with Heroes of the Storm - a game that Blizzard stopped developing in July 2022.
This is the second reason, after Jailer, why the theory of linking this key art to not the new, but last year's BlizzCon seems quite sensible. Referring to a de facto dead series (read: StarCraft) is one thing, but recalling a game in vegetative state (not to say doomed to die) is something out of place.
