Sea of Thieves 2022 preview event will herald the biggest year yet

Sea of Thieves 2022 preview event trailer announcement ghost pirate
(Image credit: Rare)

Rare will host a 2022 preview event for Sea of Thieves later this week. It will be shown on YouTube on Thursday, January 27 at 6pm GMT / 1pm EST / 10am PST and Friday, January 28 at 2am ACT.

In the announcement video, Rare promises 2022 to be Sea of Thieves' biggest year yet, with the event to outline the content fans can expect from the next season and beyond.

No specifics have been given yet, obviously, but the trailer does include some new, albeit brief snippets of game footage for fans to pore over until the event.

Considering last year saw Sea of Thieves have a crossover event with Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, with special guest appearances from Captain Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones, you have to wonder how Rare is planning to top that in 2022.

Do you Belle-lieve?

One fan theory for the coming seasons is the inclusion of a character that has been talked about but never seen in-game since before Sea of Thieves even released back in 2018.

At one point in the trailer (at the 0:15 mark), we see a figure in shadow. According to a fan on Reddit who turned up the brightness to get a better look at them, this character could be Belle.

Who is Belle? That's something even die-hard fans don't really have an answer to. A mysterious ghostly-looking individual, Belle has been used by Rare to promote Sea of Thieves in marketing material.

The figure in the trailer can only be seen from behind so them being Belle isn't a guarantee, but she must be an incredibly important character in Sea of Thieves' lore if Rare has waited this long to properly add her to the game.

Michael Beckwith

Michael is a freelance writer with bylines at the Metro, TechRaptor, and Game Rant. A Computer Games Design and Creative Writing graduate, he's been passionate about video games since the Game Boy Color, particularly Nintendo games, with Xenoblade Chronicles being his favorite game ever. Despite everything, he's still a Sonic the Hedgehog fan.