In Diablo 4, Season 7 is currently ongoing, and Blizzard has now announced that it will be extended by a few weeks. Season 8 is set to not only bring new content to the game but also an “old friend.”
Why is Season 8 starting later? Originally, Season 8 was scheduled to start on April 15, 2025, but it has now been pushed back to April 29 – two weeks later. According to the Diablo head, the update needs more development time than initially planned. His post on X has sparked speculation, as fans are now guessing who this “old friend” might be. On X, he specifically writes:
“Hey everyone, to serve the game and not the schedule, Season 8 will be in development a few weeks longer than we originally expected. The team is working hard on some great updates for the next season, so stay tuned. Looking forward to seeing an old ‘friend’ again.”
You can see the gameplay trailer for current Season 7 in Diablo 4 here:
Diablo, Tyrael, new Endgame?
Who could the “old friend” be? Under the X post and also on Reddit, fans are currently speculating on who the old friend could be. Many hope it is Diablo himself – the Lord of Terror and one of the most powerful demons in hell.
Diablo refers to himself as the supreme evil
and is always the toughest boss in the games. However, he has not appeared in Diablo 4 yet. At gamescom 2024, the developers were already asked about this. They said: The supreme evils will always return in some way.
Others are hoping for Tyrael, who plays an important role in the story of the Diablo games. In Diablo 2, Baal got his hands on the Worldstone and attempted to corrupt it. He did not succeed completely, as in “Lord of Destruction” he was defeated and Tyrael destroyed the corrupted stone.
Also, Biodiversity bets in his Reddit comment on Tyrael – and on Lorath. Players last saw Lorath in the campaign of Diablo 4, where he acted as a narrator and mentor. The user also wonders what the new season theme will be and whether the developers will reveal the great gray area in Nahantu.
In the Reddit post, Zek23 comments that the quotation marks around “friend” hint at an antagonist or a “shady NPC.” Some consider Tyrael to be “too important” to be introduced in just one season. Instead, the name Zoltun Kulle comes up, who already played a role in Season 3.
On X, however, there are fans who do not believe in a character at all – instead, they hope for new endgame content or leaderboards. The endgame of Diablo 4 has been a major point of criticism from the community since the release.
What do you think? Could the “old friend” be a familiar evil like Diablo or Mephisto? Or are we expecting a feature that returns from previous seasons? Since the first Diablo installment, the prime evils have been your biggest opponents – including Diablo and Mephisto. You can learn more about the demonic lords here: Diablo 4: The 7 evils in the Power Ranking
