Samus Aran has faced off against a number of big baddies across the Metroid series. From Space Pirate regulars like Ridley and Kraid to more wild alien menaces like Arachnus and Prime's Parasite Queen, there are no shortage of enemies for the bounty hunter to duel. However, one of the most interesting and memorable recurring bosses from the series is Nightmare, who appeared in two of the series' most recent entries: Metroid Fusion and Other M. As a result, some may be curious to know whether Nightmare will appear again in the upcoming Metroid Dread.
When Metroid Dread was revealed during Nintendo's E3 2021 Direct by senior managing executive officer Shinya Takahashi, it was also confirmed the 2D platformer by MercurySteam will be the official "Metroid 5." This means the game will end the story kicked off by 1986's Metroid on NES, and it is a direct sequel to 2002's Metroid Fusion on Game Boy Advance. While that means there is some proximity to Nightmare with regards to a relative series timeline, the jury is out on whether Dread can or will include Nightmare for a few reasons.
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Unlike many of the alien beings that Samus battles, Nightmare is a man-made threat. The boss is described as a "biomechanical lifeform," originally created by the Galactic Federation and outfitted with the ability to manipulate gravity. Chronologically, the bounty hunter first encounters Nightmare in Metroid: Other M while exploring the derelict Bottle Ship. Samus has to fight the robotic being in order to gain access to Sector Zero. However, it turns out not to be defeated the first time, and battles Samus again with its metallic mask broken away – revealing a melting, pustulent face that seems, for lack of a better term, the stuff of nightmares.
Sometime after the events of Other M, Nightmare's scattered remains are apparently brought to the Biologic Space Laboratories (BSL) research station which orbits SR388 – home of the X Parasites and birthplace of the Metroid species meant to destroy it. Samus is also brought to the BSL station after being infected by an X Parasite on SR388, kicking off the events of Metroid Fusion as she is the only person left to stop the X from assimilating a host capable of bringing ruin to the galaxy.
When Samus first gains access to the sub-zero research environment of BSL Sector 5, a silhouette of Nightmare occasionally flies across the foreground or background. She does not fight the revived Nightmare until her third visit to Sector 5, but when she does it comes at her with gravity manipulation that seemingly warps their junkyard battlefield. After Nightmare is defeated the Core-X infecting its body is released, and Samus regains her Gravity Suit by absorbing it.
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Nightmare's end is seemingly final. Not only is its X Parasite form defeated, but the end of Fusion also sees Samus dropping the BSL station into SR388 to prevent Metroid and X threats from escaping. Thus, it's unlikely Nightmare will appear again on Metroid Dread's Planet ZDR given there was presumably only one unit developed by the Galactic Federation. That being said, the Metroid series is known for bringing bosses back, so the fact that Nightmare is a man-made entity suggests it could return again – even if not the exact same Nightmare.
There may be thematic reasons for MercurySteam to bring back Nightmare too, as it did with Ridley in Samus Returns. Dread's chief threat is the E.M.M.I.: DNA-extracting machines also developed by the Galactic Federation to research the X Parasite that have gone rogue, according to the developer's Metroid Dread Report Vol. 2. If the Galactic Federation is already making a mess of Planet ZDR via its E.M.M.I., there's reason to believe other Federation creations could also be there. If Nightmare is one of them, the developer just needs to make sure a third encounter with the gravity-manipulating menace stays fresh.
Metroid Dread releases October 8, 2021 on the Nintendo Switch.