Bandai Namco surprised fans all over this morning with the trailer for the hotly-anticipated follow up DLC for Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree. I was fortunate to not only catch an early glimpse of the trailer, which also confirmed the DLC’s release date for June 21, but also to sit down and talk with the man himself, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki.

Over the course of the interview we discuss the details of Shadow of the Erdtree, some of Elden Ring’s bolder choices, his thoughts on potentially taking a step back from the director role in the future, and the state of the industry and how it relates to FromSoftware.

Read on for the full interview below, and make sure to check down our complete breakdown of the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer!

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Can you set the stage for us with Shadow of the Erdtree? Where is it taking place? And can you speak kind of generally regarding what the story is going to be about?

Hidetaka Miyazaki, Director: First of all, the setting of Shadow of the Erdtree is a brand new land. It’s a brand new map separate from the Lands Between. It is a land that is overshadowed by the particular Shadow of the Erdtree as opposed to the Erdtree in the Lands Between. And it takes place, again, on an entirely separate, physically separate map. So it will involve a warp of sorts to get there.

In terms of setting and themes, it technically occupies the same space as the Lands Between, the same universe. But due to something story related that we won’t reveal today, this has become physically disconnected, and you’ll travel to the Shadow of the Erdtree land as a separate place.

So this Land of Shadow itself is a place the player will visit to walk in the steps of Miquella. Miquella is a key part of the story this time, perhaps as guessed by many players who saw the art that was released previously. That is in fact Miquella, and it is he who traveled to the Land of Shadow and it’s the players who will be tracing his path and following in his footsteps, trying to see what he’s going to do there. Another axis of the story is Queen Marika and what she did in the Land of Shadow, and what led Miquella to follow her there.

Speaking of this new land that we’re traveling to, how is it structured? Is it structured in very much the same way as the Lands Between, where there are legacy dungeons and minor dungeons? Can you describe a little bit about how the world is going to be compared to the base game?

Miyazaki: Yes. We think players can expect a similar experience to what they had with the base game. This is going to be structured in a similar way, as you said, with open field maps, with large scale legacy dungeons, and with small to medium scale legacies as well. So we hope players will enjoy this same sense of scale and sense of adventure throughout that structure.

Can you approximate the size of the world compared to the world in the base game?

Miyazaki: It’s hard to answer without giving away too much and to a high degree of accuracy, but if you think in terms of scale or size, it’s probably comparable, if not larger, than the area of Limgrave from the base game.

So, you mentioned Miquella earlier, and that’s a character that I know fans have had a lot of questions about. Is there anything specifically you can tell us about the role this character will play in the DLC? And I know the trailer opens with a shot of Mohg’s boss arena, with the hand hanging out of the cocoon. Will we learn about what Mohg did to him?

Miyazaki: Yes. The cocoon and arm you saw at the beginning of the trailer – this is actually the point of entry to the Land of Shadow where the players will enter to the DLC area. And this does have some relation to Miquella. And Miquella has, as we said, traveled to the Land of Shadow. He does have some motive and some objective there, which we don’t want to give away too much. But essentially the player will be following in those footsteps in the same way that they followed the blessings from the Grace, the Sites of Grace in the Lands Between. They’ll be following in Miquella’s footsteps, and these will guide them through the Land of Shadow and reveal that motivation to them.

The cocoon and arm you saw at the beginning of the trailer – this is actually the point of entry to the Land of Shadow where the players will enter to the DLC area And of course the player is not the only one who is curious about Miquella. There are several characters in the world, and NPCs who have been following Miquella as well. And the player will encounter them on their journey in the Land of Shadow, and they will make new friends and enemies, we hope.

There were a lot of striking bosses and enemies that were revealed in this trailer, and I was wondering if we could just go through a handful of them one by one and you can either explain who or what they are, tell us an anecdote about their design, or anything you want. And I’m going to do my best to describe them because I don’t know the names of them. First off, there’s like… a giant basket of flaming kindling.

Miyazaki: Okay. So this giant basket of flame, as you so eloquently put it, Mitchell, was a terrible weapon you used in a war that occurred in the Land of Shadow, basically. So again, without saying too much, we can’t give away the name just yet officially, but yes, it was a really gruesome weapon that was used. And the kindling that you see is actually the remains of bodies that were put in there to burn. So there’s that friendly fellow.

And then there’s an absolutely terrifying worm with arms that eats people whole.

Miyazaki: It’s hard to talk about some of these enemies without spoiling anything, hopefully you understand. But there is a significant connection between these enemies, the way they are, and the Land of Shadow.

Okay. I’m just going to skip to the last one, if it’s okay. But what can you tell me about the man in red with snakes and flames that’s kind of like the focal point of this DLC trailer.

Miyazaki: Yes, we can speak to this character a little bit. This is a, as you say, a key figure of this DLC. We believe he will be officially revealed to be Mesmer by the time the trailer goes live. And yes, he’s a key figure in the DLC and he again has this important element of shadow to him, which is a key theme throughout the DLC as well.

And you may have seen at the end of the trailer, there was this piece of key art where it shows Mesmer sat in this throne-like chair, and people who’ve played the game may recognize this throne to be one of those from the boss room where you battle Morgott. And this represents the thrones at the base of the Erdtree. And it’s supposed to symbolize that Mesmer stands on equal footing to these other demigods and children of Marika who sat around in these thrones and held the rooms of the Erdtree.

So he is an important figure who rivals these other demigods. And as you play the DLC, you will learn a little about why he wasn’t featured in the legends of the Erdtree, the lands between. You’ll realize why he exists in this shadow, this land of shadow.

Switching gears for a second. One of the big news points I think of Elden Ring was that the scenario was written by George R. R. Martin. Did he have any kind of role in the planning of Shadow of the Erdtree? And if so, just out of curiosity, have you talked to him since the game has come out and has he had any kind of reaction to the outstanding success of the game?

Miyazaki: The way George Martin’s story has been incorporated is the same as it was with the base game with Elden Ring. And to avoid misunderstanding there, we just want to point out that he hasn’t written anything exclusively and new for the sake of this DLC.

But it would still be fair to say that he and his mythos that he created for us are involved in the creation of Shadow of the Erdtree in the same way. And the reason for that is that in making the base game and making Elden Ring, we took from that mythos, but we only took one part of it. We took from a part that created the story of Elden Ring and created the world that we wanted to envision, and the Shadow of the Erdtree is yet another part of that original mythos that he wrote and that has inspired us to create the story of this DLC.

As for your second question, Mr. Martin and I have at least exchanged emails since the release of Elden Ring, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to meet and speak in person. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since the release and talk to him again and share in our joy for the game hopefully, but unfortunately he’s just been so busy that we haven’t had that chance yet. But I’ll keep looking for an opportunity.

It’s been two years now since Elden Ring has launched, and much of the hardcore audience have already found the best gear, they fought the hardest bosses, and they’re at such high levels that I imagine it must be difficult to come up with content that can provide a challenge for those hardcore fans without making it too hard for some of the more casual Elden Ring players. So with all that said, how do you approach difficulty with a DLC such as this?

Miyazaki: Our general approach to difficulty has of course not changed to Elden Ring. We want to create a challenging experience that tests the players and that gives them a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment when they get through these struggles. However, we do want to stress that there’s still a freedom of approach and a breadth of strategy to these encounters. And that means both how you approach them if you want to face these challenges or come back to them later and circumvent them and find another way around and come back when you’re ready. This same philosophy is taken in Shadow of the Erdtree. And again, to our more hardcore players, they will find optional bosses who have been tuned in a similar way to the likes of Malenia, who I’m sure you remember from the base game, who are not crucial.

Oh, God.

Miyazaki: Yeah, you might remember her. They’re not crucial to completion of the DLC, but they are an optional extra to help challenge for those who are so inclined.

That said, there may not be another boss on exactly the same level as Malenia, but we feel like this is somewhere that we’ve paid close attention to, this level of challenge and offering that same level of freedom. And we hope that players are able to blossom in the Land of Shadow in the same way that they were in the lands between.

Actually, I want to redress that. It’s not the fact that it’s only a lesser level to Malenia, but we have prepared bosses on that with that similar mindset within the DLC area, ones that will challenge the player and hopefully be as memorable as Malenia was.

Final question on the topic of Shadow of the Erdtree, but do you envision this as the end of Elden Ring’s story or is there room for either more DLC or in Elden Ring 2 down the line?

Miyazaki: We don’t want to say this is the end of the Elden Ring saga for now. I think we said a similar thing at the end of Dark Souls 3. We didn’t want to flatten those possibilities or put a pin in them just at that time. And it’s a similar story with Elden Ring. We don’t want to discourage the possibilities for that. There might be more ideas in the future.

We don’t have any current plans to make a second DLC or a sequel, but we definitely don’t want to snuff out that possibility. We think that there could well be something the future.

And lastly, the state of the game industry right now is pretty rough. There’s a lot of layoffs, studio closures… the PS5 apparently is already in the latter stage of its lifecycle. Has the landscape of the industry changed your outlook at all on From Software’s future?

Miyazaki: Yes. I’m aware of the situation in the games industry it’s going through right now is quite harrowing. I think in terms of speaking to all those things that are happening, like layoffs and closures at other studios, I think it’s difficult for me to understand the exact circumstances there. I won’t speak to those in specifics.

Just speaking on behalf of FromSoftware, I think we are very blessed in the way that we have a lot of keen up and coming developers who’ve grown and they have developed within the studio and they’ve reached these director positions where they’re able to direct projects such as the recent Armored Core VI. We have several of these up and coming directors who we’re able to delegate these projects to, and we’re able to have multiple projects on the go at once.

What I foresee in this climate, at least for us, is a FromSoftware where games can be directed by others, not only myself. I think in the face of that struggle and the place where the games industry is right now, I do see this as a time for us to continue to grow and continue to cultivate this talent and continue to release these games for as long as we can.

Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit