Nintendo framed Metroid Dread as “Metroid 5” when revealing it at E3 2021, which left a number of implications. Producer Yoshio Sakamoto has framed it as the “final chapter” depicting Samus Aran and her relationship with the Metroid creatures, succeeding the original NES Metroid, Game Boy sequel Metroid II: Return of Samus, SNES classic Super Metroid, and the 2002 GBA title Metroid Fusion. But even as the long-awaited Metroid Dread on Nintendo Switch ends this story arc, Sakamoto promises more to come afterward.
Speaking to Famitsu and translated by Nintendo Everything, Sakamoto clarified that Dread “isn’t the end of the Metroid series,” and that this title is only “the final chapter about the shared fate and adversarial relationship Samus shares with the Metroid.” Even though Metroid II was based on the premise of Samus finally exterminating these pesky alien parasites, it seems that they’re still a problem — the baby Metroid played a pivotal role in Super Metroid, and Samus fought an Omega Metroid at the end of Fusion — but Metroid Dread will supposedly provide some closure.
Sakamoto completed his thought by stating that he hopes fans will “look forward to what’s coming in future episodes.” Metroid Prime 4 is certainly a future title in the franchise that Metroid fans are hotly anticipating, even though the Western-developed subseries is a bit disconnected from the mainstream series. But even outside of these tangent and side games, Sakamoto seems to imply that there will be more games following from wherever Dread will leave off — hopefully, with something better than Metroid: Other M.
Metroid Dread will release exclusively on Nintendo Switch on October 8, and Nintendo is using the title as a showcase for the new Nintendo Switch OLED model.
