originally, hornet was planned as a second playable character to be included in a downloadable content pack (dlc) for "hollow knight", funded as a stretch goal in game's kickstarter campaign. later, team cherry revealed some of the characters animations for hornet, and steel assassin sharpe, a villain from the game. a demo was also shown at 2019 e3 that demonstrated two areas, the deep docks and the moss grotto. eventually, team cherry decided to expand the dlc to a full sequel.