One of the things that was conspicuously missing from World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s initial announcement was the concurrent announcement of anything that might be construed as a release date. That hasn’t changed at this point, but the listing of an untitled prequel novel for the next expansion on Amazon gives some hints about when the next expansion might be coming, since the prequel novels tend to arrive sometime between 2-4 months ahead of the expansion release.
The prequel novel is listed as releasing on November 22nd, 2022, which would place the expansion release date at some point between late January and late March of 2023. This matches speculation that the lack of a firm release date or pre-orders is down to the expansion not actually being planned for a release this year (as well as the impending release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic this year). It’s far from confirmation, of course, since the novel in question is untitled in the first place and quite a bit can change, but it does offer some compelling evidence.
