In late 2016, Ancel used social media to post images from the game, showing a younger Pey'j, hinting that "Beyond Good and Evil 2" may be a prequel. Ubisoft shortly followed by officially announcing the game. Ubisoft showed the first new trailer for "Beyond Good and Evil 2" during their E3 2017 conference and was announced as a prequel to the first game. During E3 2017, Ancel confirmed that the 2008 and 2009 trailers were from initial work as a narrative sequel to "Beyond Good & Evil", but during development they opted to change direction and make it a prequel, and thus the work previously shown was from an effectively different game.