PlatinumGames president Atsushi Inaba has hinted he’d like to expand the character of Bayonetta and broaden her world.

While he stopped short of confirming a new game, Famitsu reports that when Inaba sat down with Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Kim Hyung-tae during Tokyo Game Show held to mark a crossover bringing four Bayonetta-themed costumes to Stellar Blade Complete Edition on Switch 2 this November, he admitted he still had a desire to expand the franchise further.

Kim used the opportunity to gush about the series himself, calling Bayonetta “an indispensable work in my life” (albeit via machine-translation) and naming it one of his three favourite games, while admitting he had to control himself while designing his own Bayonetta-inspired “Black Dress” costume so it wouldn’t go too far. He even asked, half-joking, to design characters for the next entry himself.

Asked directly about that next entry, Inaba declined to give specifics, telling Famitsu only to wait and see.

It’s certainly more optimistic than recent conversations – series creator Hideki Kamiya left Platinum in October 2023, saying at the time he’d envisioned Bayonetta as a nine-part saga he may now take “to the grave” with him – and Bayonetta 3 director Yusuke Miyata has also since departed.

If she does come back, it won’t be with her iconic Japanese voice work as the series recently lost Bayonetta’s Japanese voice actress Atsuko Tanaka, who died in August 2024 aged 61.