Destiny 2 will set aside the mysterious malevolent force known as The Darkness and instead focus on The Light and the Guardians' relationship with it, as well as the new Cabal villain Dominus Ghaul.

While The Darkness isn't going away from the franchise entirely, it's not being dealt with in Destiny 2. The game's director Luke Smith says The Darkness was left out for a more focused story:

“Destiny 2 is a game about Light, and what happens when it’s taken from you, and the lengths that Guardians will go to get it back. We’re exploring the relationship between the player and the Ghost in terms of Light, and Ghaul’s coveting of the Light. As such, we wanted to carve off other things that we didn’t think were important to the release, such as words like The Darkness.”

The Darkness was a vague term that wasn't fully ever defined in Destiny 1: Was it meant to refer to all the enemies of the Guardians? Or was it a specific enemy race that was never actually seen in Destiny 1?

It was all left a bit unclear, although it appears that it definitely isn't the former. Project lead Mark Noseworthy says the Cabal are not a part of the Darkness, which seems to squash the theory about some enemy alliance identified under that name:

"The Cabal have nothing to do with the Darkness. They are not of the Darkness, or its representatives. The Hive are the closest, because they worship the Darkness, but you can worship a thing that you are not.”

With that said, Luke Smith says players are owed an answer to what the Darkness is, but that won't be in Destiny 2. Instead, the main focus outside of Guardians trying to reclaim their Light is the villain of Dominus Ghaul. Players will learn more about Ghaul from cutscenes while playing the game, and discover how he unseated the Cabal Emperor and what is driving him to attack Earth and steal the Traveler.

And if there were any worries that some story threads may fade into the ether, like some of the narrative trails from Destiny 1, Smith says "[this story direction allows] Destiny 2 to usher in the rest of the saga. It’s going to start some threads that we intend to carry through.”

Destiny 2 will launch September 8, 2017 on PS4 and Xbox One, with a PC release coming at a later unannounced date.

Source: Game Informer