The Next Shantae Game Is Coming in 2027, WayForward Confirms

Shantae fans have been waiting a long time for this one. At Anime Expo in Los Angeles, WayForward revealed the first teaser image for the next Shantae game and shared it on the studio's official Bluesky account on July 3. The artwork carries two short lines of text, "Brand new Shantae tales!" and "Coming in 2027", and that release window is the real news here.

What the teaser actually shows

There is no gameplay, no title, and no platform list yet. What we get instead is a full redesign of Shantae herself, and it is a noticeable one. Her signature purple hair is now worn in long braids that end in spiked metal flails, which feels like a wink at the hair whip attack the series has been built on since the beginning. She sports gold bracers and flared red pants, a sharper and slightly more adventurous look than her previous outfits.

Character redesigns in this series have historically signaled real generational jumps, like the move to full HD art in Half-Genie Hero. So while a single image proves nothing about the game itself, it does suggest WayForward is treating this as a fresh start rather than a quick follow-up.

What we know about Shantae 7 so far

The facts are thin but solid. WayForward confirmed back in October 2025 that a seventh mainline Shantae game was in development. The Anime Expo teaser is the first visual from that project, and the 2027 window is the first release information of any kind. The series has been active in the meantime thanks to Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, a long lost Game Boy Advance project the studio finished and released, but this new game is the first built from scratch since Seven Sirens.

The franchise turns 25 in 2027, since the original Shantae launched on Game Boy Color in 2002. We doubt that timing is a coincidence.

Our take

We like that WayForward is being upfront about how early this is. A teaser with an honest year attached beats a flashy trailer followed by three delays, and the studio has a decent track record of shipping what it announces. The redesign will be debated, every Shantae redesign is, but weaponized braids are exactly the kind of playful idea this series does well. Our only real question is platforms. By 2027 the sensible bet is current generation hardware across the board, but until WayForward says so, treat that as speculation, not fact. We will keep this one on the watch list.