While Hollow Knight already boasts an extensive variety of creatures inhabiting Hallownest that are inspired by all sorts of creepy-crawlies, there are actually several species that never made it into the final version of the game. While content winding up on the cutting room floor is par for the course in game development, Hollow Knight brings with it the added complication of being crowdfunded on Kickstarter, where content from stretch goals never made it to the game if said goals were never reached.
However, with honorable mentions of the odd character getting cut such as snails or shrumals, there is an extensive list of different enemies, bosses, and species being cut for a range of reasons, from simple explanations of not hitting stretch goals to certain enemies disrupting the overall design of the game. With Hollow Knight: Silksong currently in development and anticipation high for its eventual launch, players are wondering if cut content from the first game will find its way into the sequel, whether it's an expanded role for spiders owing to protagonist Hornet's Weaver-lineage or an entire species line of ants that never saw an official release.
Blundering Obelisk
One of the simpler examples of a cut enemy, the Blundering Obelisk was a centipede-like creature that, judging by its description leftover in the game, was intended more as an obstacle than a hostile threat. It states that while it doesn't wish harm, its actions and movements can cause messy outcomes, suggesting the player may have been expected to kill these enemies if only to safely pass by within areas of Hallownest. This could explain why it was cut, as it would have come across as unnecessarily cruel to kill an enemy that wasn't actively hostile, and would explain why it might not return in Silksong if it doesn't fit with Team Cherry's ethos in enemy design.
Dryya The White Knight
Of Hollow Knight's five great knights, only two are alive while the other three have died, such as encountering the False Knight and learning of the stolen armor. More specifically though, the player will come across the corpse of Dryya, the "White Knight" in the Queen's Glade. Intended as a boss battle in order to access the area originally, early notes indicate she was driven mad by the Queen's death leading her to attack the player. However, her role was cut in the final game with little explanation, but fans believe that changes to the game's narrative with the Queen or "White Lady" needing to meet the player rendered Dryya's boss battle moot.
King's Golem and Dusk Knight
Arguably the most contentious examples of cut enemies, the King's Golem and Dusk Knight were two bosses that were planned for the White Palace area, specifically referenced in Team Cherry's stretch goals on Kickstarter. While no such bosses exist in the final game, elements of both were combined into the Kingsmould guards in the same area. Despite being promised to backers and with no official reason for their removal, it's believed that the bosses were cut due to the White Palace's high difficulty with its sub-areas like the Path of Pain, and forcing boss battles into an already frustrating area would have been detrimental to players' experiences.
The Abyss Boss
Another of Team Cherry's stretch goals was going to be an expansion to The Abyss, another area within Hollow Knight, but the goal was never reached. While concept art and developer notes exist detailing how Team Cherry would have implemented this expansion, it was never put into the final game. In particular, a boss encounter was planned for The Abyss which appears to have been intended to rise out of the void lake and attack the player at the lighthouse. Leftover details also seem to hint toward this, such as the "Birthplace" section of The Abyss appearing visually similar to Team Cherry's own notes, but no such boss exists for the lore-heavy Abyss.
Ants
Unlike the other enemies cut, the ants represent an entire species that Team Cherry removed from Hollow Knight. The reasoning behind their removal was that the ants were specific to another area of Hollow Knight that also got cut, meaning that while the species would have worked perfectly well within the world of Hallownest, it was just due to circumstance they never made it to the final game. However, since the Forest of Bones, the region they belonged, appears to have been returned in Hollow Knight: Silksong and ants have similarly appeared in trailers, it seems Team Cherry has not cut the idea out entirely and is instead going to reuse ants for the sequel.
Spiders and Weavers
While the Weavers were not specifically cut from Hollow Knight, several enemies and creatures associated with them were, and the Weavers themselves saw their roles reduced in the final game. For example, Team Cherry shared an early image of a "Spider Mage" on Twitter with a brief description, but ultimately these enemies never made it into the game and instead uninfected Weavers can be found in a sub-area of Deepnest. Additionally, in the "A Weird and Wonderful World" trailer, a giant spider is shown briefly confronting the Knight and predating Deepnest's existence at the time, but it was never confirmed is this was to be a boss encounter or normal NPC.
With the announcement and trailers leading toward Hollow Knight: Silksong, coupled with Hornet's connection to the Weavers, it's these last examples of cut enemies that seem to be making an even bigger return to the world of Hollow Knight than the ants. As the game indicates its connections to spiders, silk, and music, Hollow Knight's upcoming sequel might have a much larger role for the Weavers to play. These ideas might be born from Team Cherry's original ambition for this race of spider-like creatures that players never got to see before, ranging from increased lore to maybe even a return of the Holy Grounds.
Hollow Knight is available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.