First 2D Metroid game that is not a remake of a previous title since Metroid: Fusion (2002), a gap of 19 years.
Was announced at the E3 2021 on June 15, 2021, a mere 4 months before its release, with the game's development being done in total secret. Before that, only Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025) was known to be in development.
The first trailer released during the E3 2021 marketed the game specifically as 'Metroid 5'. It is thus meant to be the fifth installment in the main 2D Metroid series, which further consists of Metoroido (1986) (or its remake Metroid: Zero Mission (2004)), Metoroido II Return of Samus (1991) (or its remake Metroid: Samus Returns (2017)), Super Metroid (1994) and Metroid: Fusion (2002). Other games are considered side-stories (such as the Metroid Prime (2002) series and Metroid Prime: Hunters (2006), which are 3D, and the 2D/3D hybrid Metroid: Other M (2010)) or spin-offs (Metroid Prime: Pinball (2005) and Metroid Prime: Federation Force (2016)).
The game was announced several times for the Nintendo DS, as a sequel to the GBA title Metroid: Fusion (2002). Officially, it first turned up as a future title on a list in 2005, but nothing came out of this. In Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007), a text screen could be scanned that read "Experiment status report update: Metroid project 'Dread' is nearing the final stages of completion", but a nearby panel read "Experiment results unsuccessful. All attempts at using Metroids as a weapon power source have failed." Fans assumed that this meant the game was either canceled or still in development hell, although Nintendo claimed that these messages had nothing to do with the game itself. Another attempt to revive the game was done in 2008, but again, the project didn't take shape. Producer Yoshio Sakamoto later clarified that the technical limitations of the DS system prevented his vision of the antagonistic EMMI robot from being implemented properly, and that they would only retry if technology and popular demand were sufficient. After Nintendo had collaborated with software development company MercurySteam for Metroid: Samus Returns (2017), Sakamoto was very impressed with their work and allowed them to finally develop Metroid Dread into a Nintendo Switch title.