Sorry folks, Hellblade 2's new trailer doesn't have the Big Guy in it

Remember the last Hellblade 2 trailer? It had a really big guy in it. He sort of looked like a zombie except he could talk.

Big Guy isn't in the latest Hellblade 2 trailer, which Microsoft debuted during its Xbox Games Showcase today. And, honestly, I'm bummed out. What was his deal? Where was he going? Why did he need help? These are the sort of questions the people have been asking since he crawled out of his cave in 2021.

In today's trailer, Senua is trapped in her own cave. As she approaches a pool in the middle of it, the voices in her head bounce around until the walls start twisting into shapes. The uneasy camera work from the first game returns and moves closer to her as she talks back to a voice that sticks out from the rest: "I know you."

It's never made clear who the voice is, and unfortunately I'm pretty sure it's not Big Guy. Whoever it is, they want Senua to find something by reaching into the pool. When she finally does press her hands into the water, it shatters like glass and sends her tumbling out of the cave.

Hellblade 2 humanoid monster close-up

(Image credit: Ninja Theory)

And that's it. The Big Guy mystery remains unsolved, but now you have a small taste of how Hellblade 2 will follow-up the psychological Celtic horror of the first game. It also might suggest it'll play with your physical surroundings even more than the first one, which might be aided by the technical allowances of its shift to Unreal Engine 5.

Hellblade 2 and hopefully Big Guy will arrive in 2024.

Associate Editor

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.