Earlier in the year, it felt like Hollow Knight: Silksong had been forgotten, a collective dream from the many fans of the original hoping to get their hands on a playable Hornet as she grappled her way across Pharloom with her spider-silk threads. That was until the Nintendo Direct for the Switch 2, which had many major announcements, from the shocking pricing of new games, to a new, suspiciously Bloodborne adjacent title from FromSoftware called The Duskbloods. Still, Hollow Knight fans didn't let the mere seconds of Silksong by without notice, and it gave them the news they sought.

As part of the presentation, Hollow Knight: Silksong got a release window, aiming for some time in 2025. The Hollow Knight fan base went from dead in the water to celebrating like they had won the World Cup, and the sudden rekindling of energy could be felt in the community.. There was still some skepticism about the release window, since Silksong originally had a 2023 window that got pushed back, but after some news from a museum of all places, it feels like the 2025 release window could be true.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Could Release Before September 2025

And A Museum Is The Source, For Some Reason

It sometimes feels like the hunt for Silksong news can lead fans to strange places, and the newest source of news comes from an Australian museum's gaming exhibition. Melbourne Museum is hosting a gaming exhibition called Game Worlds, which includes displays that look at game design and artistic direction. Hollow Knight: Silksong will be a part of this exhibition, which begins on September 18, 2025, and ends on February 8, 2026, which means that Silksong should be released before September, else the exhibition will become a den of spoilers for an incomplete game.

So far, World of Warcraft, The Sims, Neopets, and Hollow Knight: Silksong have all been announced for the Game Worlds exhibition.

This is the first bit of news fans have got since the sneaky 2025 release window, and it backs this up, with Silksong potentially releasing in September, before the exhibition. I personally found the Nintendo Direct release window even harder to believe after the trailer was removed from Steam. It was a strange action that bodes poorly for the given release window, although it could also be that Team Cherry is planning to put a more up-to-date trailer on the page soon. This was always an optimistic viewpoint, although an August or September release date would coincide with it.

Team Cherry is an Australian developer after all, and despite the tiny size of its development team, it is one of the massive success stories to come from Australia's gaming scene. Hollow Knight has an argument to be one of the most influential indie games of the 2010s, almost single-handedly reviving the Metroidvania genre. Although an international exhibition, it makes sense for Team Cherry to be part of this exhibition in Melbourne, and it isn't like the news isn't being backed up with new material. This new material gives players an idea of the work needed to make Silksong.

New Material For Silksong Has Been Shown Off

A Massive Sprite Sheet Of Hornet's Animations Is Available

As part of the exhibition, Team Cherry has shared an extensive sprite sheet containing what seems to be all of Hornet's poses with the Game World exhibition. This is quite an impressive sprite sheet, showing off all Hornet's attacks, movement options, tools, and what looks to be some instances of her taking damage. One sprite has her being entrapped by what looks like a wrapping worm of some kind, not to be confused with wyrms, like the Pale King's original form. Hopefully, Team Cherry being so open to sharing will correlate to the game being ready for release soon.

Team Cherry has a development team of three people: Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine.

Hornet's sprite sheet seems more extensive than the Knights, and this makes sense, since her general movements are more complicated, from spinning around with a billowy skirt to using tools to aid both combat and movement. It shows how much more work is going into Silksong versus the original Hollow Knight, especially because there are dedicated sprites for Hornet's threads. Some of these sprites could be taken from Hornet's boss fights in Hollow Knight, although it does seem like she has far more options as a playable character compared to her original NPC appearance.

Still, there is plenty to pick through for theorists like Mossbag. For instance, it appears as though Hornet will have some kind of lightning-enhanced dash, possibly being her version of the Knight's void dash that allows the player to through objects. The strange, wrapping tendril sprites could be something Hornet has access to as an ability, rather than her being attacked, although not enough is known about the game to make accurate assumptions. Hopefully, that will change with a new trailer soon and even a September release date reveal. One can only hope at this point.

Silksong's Missing Steam Trailer Could Just Be A Red Herring

Maybe The Trailer Doesn't Represent The Final Game

As has been the case with Silksong's entire existence thus far, everything feels shrouded in speculation. Nintendo gave Silksong fans a release window, not an exact date, and no real trailer, yet a museum is the reason why the window could be narrowed to before September. There aren't many games that have fans flying through as many hoops, looking for tiny details for any kind of scrap of news. So little is given that when it gets taken away, as was the case with the Steam page's trailer, it can send fans into a panic, but this could be a sign of good things to come.

The trailer on the Steam page is years old, and it could mean that Team Cherry is planning to stitch another together after all the work it has done during development. Although practically scraps, a release window, new splash art, and an entire sprite sheet for a museum all in recent months is a lot for Team Cherry. Materials have been shown more frequently in the last few months, and it is assumed that the sprite sheet would only be given if it was a finished product. Hopefully, that means work on Hornet specifically is done, and the game is close behind.

For someone who has been following Silksong news since it was announced as an expansion, I have always been skeptical of release windows and hypothetical dates, but things finally look like they're moving in the right direction. With, hopefully, finalized materials being given for exhibitions, 2025 looks to be the year players can get their hands on Hollow Knight: Silksong. Although it might be dangerous to it this, I feel like the long wait is nearly over, and it will be time soon to leave Hallownest for the bells and threads of Pharloom.