When the 2019 teaser for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 came out, fans began speculating the game would directly address lore in Twilight Princess. That could certainly still be true, but with the release of the new trailer, an even more interesting Zelda theory is begging to take hold: what if the sequel directly addresses lore - and settings - from Skyward Sword?
The huge reveal that the 2021 E3 trailer provided Zelda fans is that, in the words of producer Eiji Aonuma, "the setting has expanded to include the skies above Hyrule.” Players actually know exactly what lays in the sky above Hyrule: Skyloft, the city in the sky where Skyward Sword begins. Skyward Sword is a tale about how Zelda and Link get dragged by evil forces into matters on the surface - which, of course, later becomes known as Hyrule. What if the sequel to Breath of the Wild is the perfect inverse: this time, evil forces drag Link into the sky?
In fact, in the big revealing shot of the skyward world of Breath of the Wild 2 - the landmass ostensibly-Link is falling towards - looks much more like Skyloft than Hyrule. Still, there seem to be significantly more - and bigger - sky islands in Breath of the Wild 2 than there were in Skyward Sword, but Skyward Sword takes places tens of thousands - possibly even hundreds of thousands - of years prior to Breath of the Wild. Normal earth-land shifts and erodes during that kind of time, so why couldn't land in the sky do the same?
Breath of the Wild 2's Trailer Directly Parallels Skyward Sword
The Breath of the Wild 2 trailer is practically begging viewers to make this parallel. A famous cutscene in Skyward Sword shows Link falling to the surface. Now, players are being shown a cutscene of Link falling to the sky island. Even the fact that the remastered version of Skyward Sword is on the immediate horizon for Switch release now feels very intentional. By chance, it was also next in line for a remaster.
Twilight Princess, too, mentions civilization in the clouds above Hyrule. One of the game's dungeons is in the City in the Sky - the ruined remnants of an ancient civilization where the Oocca now live. While the City in the Sky doesn't exactly look like Skyloft (Twilight Princess was released before Skyward Sword) it could be very easily retconned to be the ruins of Skyloft. There's also the matter of the Zonai Tribe, a mysterious ancient civilization whose ruins are all over Hyrule in Breath of the Wild.
Whether or not the Zonai link up with mysterious lore of civilizations - like the Oocca - in the sky will be interesting to see. Players know from Skyward Sword that many citizens of Skyloft moved to the surface, but they don't know if they all moved to the surface, or if some moved to the surface later in time. There is also a precedent for humanoids evolving into non-humanoid species, since the Kokiri canonically evolved in Koroks after the Great Flood. By that logic, having ditched Skyloft citizens evolve into the Oocca makes perfect sense.
It's fully possible for Breath of the Wild 2 to be a sequel to both Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. Since Skyward Sword is at the very beginning of the timeline, it's shared by every timeline splintered by the events of Ocarina of Time. Theories already abound about the connection between Breath of the Wild 2 and Twilight Princess, given that the mummified Ganon corpse Link and Zelda find in the 2019 trailer is in the exact position Twilight Princess' Ganon would be in.
The fact that the new Breath of the Wild 2 trailer ends with Hyrule Castle in the sky is a clear hint that The Legend of Zelda might be about to come full circle. What began in the sky may, now, return to the sky.