Blizzard register "Mists of Pandaria" trademark, Pandarens coming to World of Warcraft?

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It already seemed likely that Blizzard would use their next expansion pack to add a new continent to World of Warcraft. Of all the new lands and races Blizzard could add, many players secretly held out hope that they'd finally get to see the tropical lands of Pandaria, home to a race of sentient pandas called the Pandarens.

The trademark, filed late last week, is registered to cover "computer game software" and "entertainment services," suggesting that Blizzard aren't simply using the title for a spin off product like a book. It could be part of an upcoming patch, but if the plan is to add the land of Pandaria, then that would likely require something bigger.

Adding Pandarens to World of Warcraft would be a spectacular move from Blizzard given that the race was initially created as an April Fool' joke for WarCraft 3 . Since then they've become more and more popular, and have worked their way into many different aspects of WarCraft lore.

The WoW wiki has conveniently amassed all of this Pandaren lore into one page . Essentially, they're an independent race of beer-loving panda men with awesome martial arts skills and excellent hats. The closest you can get to a Pandaren in World of Warcraft right now is to buy the Pandaren monk pet from the Blizzard store. Pandaria would be a huge shift away from the apocalyptic fires of Cataclysm and the recent Firelands update. How would you like to be a panda in World of Warcraft?

UPDATE: Graham demands we remind the world of the Pandamonium cartoon.

Tom Senior
Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.