Gleeok is back in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and a leaked ad implies more than one three-headed dragon

(Image credit: Nintendo)

The dramatic climax of the final trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom seemingly confirmed the return of old-school series baddie Gleeok, and a leaked TV ad suggests that there might be more than one of the three-headed dragons in the game.

We first got a glimpse of what looked like Gleeok back in February's trailer, but the new video gives us a much more up-close-and-personal view of the dragon. Gleeok first appeared in the original NES Zelda, showing up with two, three, or four heads as a recurring boss across several dungeons. Gleeok also shows up as a boss in Oracle of Seasons on the Game Boy and Phantom Hourglass on the DS. Both those versions only have two heads, and in Phantom Hourglass, the two heads dole out fire and ice elemental attacks.

With Gleeok appearing so differently from game to game, we could never be 100% certain if it was the same creature in Tears of the Kingdom. But whatever doubt there might have been has effectively been erased by a leaked ad for the game, which shows Link fighting a boss battle against "Flame Gleeok" atop the Bridge of Hylia, the same location where we saw the creature appear in both previous trailers.

The specification of this being a "flame" Gleeok has given fans something new to speculate on, though - does that mean we'll see multiple Gleeoks, each with their own elemental affinity? There's already precedent for a Gleeok with ice abilities, and if Tears of the Kingdom follows Breath of the Wild's elemental trinity, that would mean we're likely to see an electricity Gleeok, too. I never thought a new Zelda would fulfill my need to see King Ghidorah in more video games, but I'm not mad about this outcome.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.