Pokémon Go teases Team Go Rocket boss battles

What you need to know

• Several tweets from the official Pokémon Go account have hinted at new Team Go Rocket characters arriving.
• A new loading screen is on the way as well.
• The Pokémon Rotom may also be involved.

While Team Go Rocket has been a welcome addition to Pokémon Go, its members have constituted more of a nuisance than a dire threat to this point, taking over PokéStops with grunts that are fairly easily defeated. That might not be the case for long, however. The game's official Twitter account has been dropping some pretty serious hints that Team Go Rocket bosses are arriving soon.

The most recent tweet, which promises a new loading screen, is the biggest one yet:

As a commenter notes, that poor trainer is likely in for a world of hurt. That tweet came on the heels of several others from the past few days, centered on a corrupted file from the computer of Professor Willow.

So far, Niantic hasn't revealed the details of what these tweets might mean. Speculation among the Pokémon Go community is that players will be able to face off against higher ranking — and thus more powerful — characters from Team Go Rocket in an upcoming update. They could be coming to research tasks, raids, or just taking over location on the map like their grunts. But with Halloween right around the corner, it's the perfect time for new Shadow Pokémon to be unleashed in-game.

There's also a chance that Rotom, a mercurial Pokémon who's been known to take over electronics, might be part of all this. It's already been monkeying with the Pokémon Sword and Shield website, so Rotom may be the culprit behind Professor Willow's corrupted file too.

In any case, we'll be keeping a close eye on both the Twitter account and Pokémon Go itself to give you the lowdown on whatever dirty deeds Team Go Rocket has planned next.