Blizzard veteran Chris Metzen - who retired from the studio back in 2016, only to rejoin at the end of last year - has been made executive creative director of Warcraft.

Prior to his departure in 2016, Metzen, who had been with Blizzard for 23 years at that point, was head writer and lore guru at the company (more officially, senior vice president of story and franchise development) with a hand in all the studio's properties.

Since rejoining Blizzard, however, Metzen has been solely focused on Warcraft (in the role of franchise creative advisor), and his new executive creative director position will continue in much the same vein, seeing Metzen focus exclusively on developing the Warcraft universe, initially with an eye on "crafting the next generation of [World of Warcraft] adventures.

Blizzard announced Metzen's promotion in a post on social media, writing, "We are excited to share that Chris Metzen has taken on a full-time role as executive creative director of the Warcraft universe. Right now, his main focus is support our World of Warcraft leadership in creating the next generation of adventures."

"Chris was instrumental in developing the foundations of the Warcraft universe," Blizzard continued, "and we are thrilled for him to re-join our teams in shaping what's to come. At BlizzCon, he and the team will be sharing what we've been working on."

Responding to Blizzard's post, Metzen wrote, "It's been amazing working on Warcraft again. Like coming home. The stories we're developing right now – how the world unfolds over the next few years... Well, I can’t wait for y’all to see where we’re headed. SOON..."

This year's BlizzCon runs from Friday, 3rd November to Saturday, 4th November, and will be the show's first in-person event since 2019.