I Marathoned Hollow Knight And Silksong, And I Want To Play…

Since September 2025, I have been deep in the world of Hollow Knight. I beat the first game many years ago, and revisited it a couple of years after to watch my girlfriend beat it. Since then, I've been waiting with bated breath for the sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Team Cherry announced at Gamescom 2025 that their next game was coming this year; not just this year, but about two weeks later. I was on vacation at the time, and so, with about a week to go before Silksong's launch, I jumped back in for a full playthrough of Hollow Knight to get prepared. Once that was done, it was time to play my most anticipated game of the year.

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Two and a half months later, and I've marathoned both Hollow Knight games. I have fully immersed myself in one of (I believe) the greatest video game worlds of all time, and I've come away with a ton of thoughts about both games. However, instead of dwelling on the past (yes, Silksong is the past now), it seems like a great time to start generating some hype for whatever Team Cherry does next with this franchise. During my journeys through Hallownest and Pharloom, I met tons of fantastic, lovable, and beautifully designed characters. If a third Hollow Knight game were to follow the same trend that Silksong did, where the main character of the next game was a side character in the previous one, then these are the characters I want to take the lead in a third Hollow Knight game.

Major Spoilers Ahead for Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Shakra

A Brave Warrior Who Lost Her Master

I was going to be skeptical of whoever the map merchant was in Hollow Knight: Silksong because of how fond I became of Cornifer, the gentle cartographer from Hollow Knight who was a relief to hear humming his jaunty tune in each of the game's main areas. However, Shakra grew on me very quickly. She's a warrior from a small tribe that values combat prowess so much, they name each other after their weapon of choice. Much like Cornifer's quills, Shakra's shakras often litter the ground near her location.

There are a few reasons why Shakra would be a great protagonist in a third Hollow Knight game. For one, unlike both Hornet and The Knight, her primary weapon is a ranged weapon. Even considering Hornet's tools, a combat system built around ranged combat would be a major (and welcome) change. Second, she's much bigger than the previous two protagonists; almost twice as big as Hornet, in fact. Given the implications of Silksong's "Passing of the Age" ending, there's a chance we'll be heading to the Surface in a third game, and given the giant skull Hornet stumbles upon up there, a larger protagonist like Shakra might be the only character who can reasonably handle the creatures that live above ground. Third, Shakra is poised for a great narrative. After discovering that her master is dead, Shakra is seeking meaning and purpose. She was last seen defending the citizens of Bellhart from the Void-possessed bugs, buying Hornet time to halt the Void's spread. Now that Hornet has succeeded, a personal quest is exactly what Shakra needs.

Zote

Mighty Warrior Or Unreliable Narrator?

There's a bit more to this idea than simply narrative intrigue. During Hollow Knight's original Kickstarter campaign, Team Cherry set a pair of fundraising goals that, when met, would introduce two new playable characters to the game . One of those characters was Hornet, who, instead of being playable in Hollow Knight, became the star of her own game: Hollow Knight: Silksong. However, the promotional image for the second Kickstarter goal featured a character gazing off into the distance who looked quite a bit like Zote.

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The thing is, a lot of characters in Hollow Knight look like Zote, including The Knight themself. While it has been all but confirmed that Zote is not a vessel and is more than likely just a bug with daddy issues, that doesn't mean there's no story here. The thing is, Zote's desperation to make his father proud (whether he admits it or not) has made him extremely arrogant with absolutely nothing to back that attitude up; at least, that we know of. While Zote the Mighty and Grey Prince Zote are powerful hidden Dream bosses, it's assumed that they're incarnations of how Zote sees himself, and not literally his younger self. As it stands, very little is actually known about Zote, and that makes him a very interesting protagonist option. Team Cherry could fill in his backstory, or take an approach like Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, where Zote is narrating an outlandish story that keeps changing during the telling, and we get to experience the story while it's told, piecing together which parts are true and which are just the ravings of a boastful bug.

Lace

The Antagonist Turned Protagonist

Just like The Knight and Hornet, Lace is the daughter of a higher being, Grand Mother Silk. While The Knight was born of the Pale King and the White Lady, and Hornet is the daughter of the Pale King and Herrah the Beast, Lace was spun entirely from silk, and along with Phantom, she was created by Grand Mother Silk to be her devoted daughter and help her wake from her slumber. Where Phantom came undone, Lace remained loyal, so much so that her mother's obsession with Hornet's natural silk-producing abilities caused her such jealousy that she eventually turned on Grand Mother Silk.

Much like Shakra at the end of Silksong, Lace needs a new purpose. Hornet rescued her from the Void, but she stole the last of Grand Mother Silk's power to do so, leaving Lace without her mother and without a purpose or any connection to her mother. Lace also played a very similar role in Silksong as Hornet did in Hollow Knight; "villains" who gradually take on the role of redemptive antiheroes later on. Lace is probably the most obvious choice for the protagonist of a third Hollow Knight game when considering that similarity, but there's an element of self-loathing present in Lace that is not a part of Hornet's character. Lace doesn't just need a purpose; she needs to find a way to value herself without her mother's influence. There's a fascinating character arc waiting just below the surface if this is the route Team Cherry takes.

Quirrel

Intrepid Explorer And Dreamer's Apprentice

In all likelihood, Quirrel is dead. After The Knight kills his mentor, Monomon the Teacher, Quirrel seems distant. He starts to talk about feeling old and wanting to rest, and when you go to revisit him at his spot near the Lake of Tears, Quirrel is gone, but he left his nail stuck in the ground. Given that Quirrel is always talking about how important it is to have a weapon when exploring, the symbolism of leaving his weapon behind couldn't be much clearer.

What isn't clear about Quirrel is where he was before the events of Hollow Knight; even he doesn't seem to know. When Quirrel first shows up, he has no memory of ever visiting Hallownest before, despite being very much present when Monomon helped seal the Hollow Knight. After The Knight kills Monomon, Quirrel remembers that part of his past, but at some point between sealing the Hollow Knight and the beginning of Hollow Knight, Quirrel left Hallownest, and then later returned. Where he went, what he did, why he returned, and why he doesn't remember any of it is all a mystery. While it wouldn't directly continue the story of the series, a prequel that explores Quirrel's journey prior to the first game would be a welcome change of pace.

Hornet

If It Ain't Broke...

For all intents and purposes, The Knight's story is done. They were called back to Hallownest by the Hollow Knight (or The Radiance sealed within) to contain the spreading infection, and once they did so, their story was mostly done. That's not the case with Hornet. Yes, we get a ton more backstory about her in Hollow Knight: Silksong, but her role as a traveling protector positions her as an ideal recurring hero for the series.

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Hornet mentions towards the end of Silksong that she had already failed to protect one kingdom from ruin and that she wasn't about to let it happen again. While what happened in Hallownest was hardly her fault, she still feels responsible and takes it upon herself to save Pharloom from the clutches of Grand Mother Silk, and later, from the emergence of the Void. While it might feel a bit redundant, there would be nothing wrong with sending Hornet to another kingdom in peril and making her the de facto defender of this world. Or, better yet, since she's already been to the surface, maybe she follows Mister Mushroom and explores the world above? Either way, Hornet's story does not necessarily need to end with Silksong, and she's definitely a strong enough character to carry multiple games.

Steel Assassin Sharpe

Where Did You Come From, Where Did You Go?

I'm reaching a little here, since Steel Assassin Sharpe isn't actually in Silksong, but that's what makes him so interesting. He was supposed to be in Silksong; hell, he was even featured in the first trailer. Sharpe is the leader of a trio of assassins who were meant to hunt Hornet around Pharloom, but for some reason, they were cut from the game. The thing is, Sharpe is a Kickstarter backer creation, and Team Cherry never leaves their backers hanging.

Sharpe could very easily be on the shelf for an upcoming DLC, and may be introduced in a similar manner to Grimm in Hollow Knight, but there's also a chance that he was shelved to save him and his gang for a more prominent role in a third game. Now, that would be a gamble, because Sharpe doesn't have anything close to the name recognition that Hornet had going into Silksong, but at this point, Team Cherry has built up a metric ton of player goodwill. They could make a game starring an old Barbie doll that was dipped in acid, and people would give it a chance. The mystery surrounding Sharpe, his unique fighting style (using his proboscis as both a sword and a whip), and his position as the leader of a gang as opposed to the offspring of a higher being, would provide a completely unique perspective on this world that we haven't seen yet. It's probably the least likely option on this list, but it would also be the most surprising, and the boldest route that Team Cherry could take with their next game.