Anna Williams in Tekken 8? Namco Easter Egg hints Season 2 DLC

Anna Williams has appeared in every single Tekken title to date, but if you've purchased and booted up Tekken 8 you'll be quick to notice she is missing from the starting roster. However, that might be about to change following a HUGE hint in the Winter and Spring 2025 Update Trailer.

Anna Williams offered a high risk high reward playstyle in Tekken 6 and 7, which along with her appearance, led to a rise in her popularity. While she was simply "Nina's sister" in early Tekken entries, adding Anna to Tekken 8 would bring something to the table Bandai Namco knows fans are a fan of.

If you've seen talk online about Anna being a Season 2 DLC character but struggled to find any actual image of her, that's because there aren't any. News of Anna in Season 2 is thanks to an Easter Egg which is seen for a brief 3 seconds in the Winter and Spring 2025 Update Trailer. So how do we know it's Anna?

One of Nina's victory outros in Tekken 8 involves her escaping fire from a helicopter. In the trailer for the Spring 2025 Update we see a brief 3 seconds of the actual helicopter for the first time. The helicopter is sprayed with a rose right along the side which glints for a second. Not only is the rose a motif of Anna, she also had rose tattoos on her leg, midriff and lower-back in certain unlockable skins in Tekken 7.

Furthermore, in Anna's ending in Tekken 7, she is showered with roses by paparazzi, and uses one as a distraction to launch a throwing knife at her sister.

On the front of the helicopter in the trailer we also see a heart with a dagger through it. This could be a reference to the death of Anna's fiancée during the events of Tekken 7. Anna's fiancée had ties to Italian mafia, and as such became a target for Nina, who assassinated him on their wedding day. Definitely a good reason to get your own helicopter and hunt down your sister, right?

Just to ensure fans got the hint, we even see a set of lips on one of the helicopter's missiles. This one is quite an obscure reference, and was noticed by BuffGigas on Twitter who shared a screenshot from Tekken 5 of an Anna missile with the same lipstick mark on it. Considering Tekken 5 came out over two decades ago, most fans would be forgiven for missing this one.

Given the rivalry between the sisters through the Tekken franchise, and the fact the rose is one of Anna's motifs, this has all but confirmed Anna as a Season 2 DLC character.

Anna is not currently playable in Tekken 8, and Bandai Namco have not confirmed she will be in the future. However, Bandai Namco dropped a massive hint she will be a Season 2 character in their Winter and Spring 2025 Update Trailer on December 8, 2024.

Anna was also not part of the launch roster of Tekken 7, and did not arrive until DLC4 in 2018, three years after the game's release. Given Anna's popularity, her seemingly imminent arrival will be very welcome.

Bandai Namco have confirmed there will be four DLC characters in 2024, with three of them now already released; Eddy, Lidia and Heihachi. The fourth DLC character for Season 1 will be revealed at The Game Awards 2024 on Dec.11. Given the Easter Egg in the Spring 2025 trailer, Anna looks almost certain to be a Season 2 DLC character.

Tekken 8 Game Director Katsuhiro Harada has actually made a direct response to a request for Anna in June 2024, but it was perhaps not the response Anna fans were hoping for. After a Twitter user called Delta Kara offered to buy 5 copies of Tekken 8 in exchange for Bandai Namco adding Anna, Harada cheekily QRTed and said to make it 50 copies. Delta Kara later replied "I would give Anna my whole family inheritance", you can't buy that kind of character loyalty.

Harada's cheeky reply set of a whole chain of over 300 replies offering various copy amounts in exchange the characters they wanted. However, it didn't give any more hope to an Anna Williams return in the near future.

Anna has appeared in every Tekken game, including the Tekken Tag tournament spin-offs, Tekken 3D and even the turn-based Tekken Card Challenge.

Ahead of Tekken 7, Anna decided to retire and fell in love with an elite soldier from the G corporation. However, on the day of her wedding she found her fiancé dead and her sister Nina fleeing the scene.

Enraged by what had happened to her, Anna returned to the King of Iron Fist Tournament for Tekken 7. Anna's ending in Tekken 7 sees her exit a limo and walk up the red carpet. As she poses for the paparazzi, she also simultaneously foils two assassination attempts on herself, one of which was by her sister Nina.

Does sibling rivalry ever truly die? We hope not. We definitely need it in Tekken 8.

We'll update this article when fresh news drops about Anna.