A mysterious World of Warcraft trailer has people wondering whether an animated show will be coming.

The hype machine is in full swing as World of Warcraft: The War Within releases on August 26. There's a 2D cinematic which has me genuinely excited about seeing Xal'atath eat some scenery, Khadgar fire a big laser and the promise of a "new experience in Dalaran", arriving for testing today.

Blizzard isn't just teasing new Dalaran shenanigans. This short clip shows a 2D mystery thingcaptioned simply: "Soon(tm).

Some commenters are buzzing about the possibility of an animated TV series, but while that would be awesome, the smart money is on a humble animation short for several reasons.

The animation style is very similar to the Heroes of the Storm Animations created by Titmouse. This animation studio has done a lot of work in the gaming industry, and outside of it. It's got a prolific portfolio that includes D&D-livestream-turned-franchise The Legend of Vox Machina among many others. It's not confirmed that isthem but it has the studio's flavor and we know Blizzard worked with Titmouse in the past.

The logo at the very end of the teaser calls out the expansion, which is a pretty good indication that it's intended to market rather than tease a animated series.

The battle takes place in Quel'thalas (via WoWHead's analysis of frames) and is most likely taking place before the Scourge took over. The elves have blue eyes which means that they haven't yet visited the Sunwell to get some sippies. We also see Alleria Windrunner, who will be a major character in the expansion.

This looks more like a pre expansion animation that takes the uninitiated into Alleria's history, than a full-fat, standalone series. Especially since this is the only hint we've heard of it so far. If I'm wrong, I will eat humble pie and suffer a 60-minute embarrassment.

I'm certain that if the reception is positive, the studio would be happy to turn Warcraft's extensive story into a full-length show. If Blizzard was serious about polishing its story, this would be a better alternative than saying, "hey, play these old strategy games".