Michel Ancel is getting Beyond Good & Evil fans excited again

UPDATE 29/9/16 9.15am: He's done it again - Michel Ancel has posted another piece of artwork, and this time we're even more certain its concept art for Beyond Good & Evil 2.

The image shows one of Beyond Good & Evil's anthropomorphic sharks, although in far higher detail. It appears to be an in-engine render.

You may remember BG&E's Francis and Rufus, the sharks who hung around Bar Akuda.

Ancel captioned the artwork with a reference to today's big Ubisoft shareholder meeting, where Vivendi is expected to push for a seat on Ubisoft's board. Vivendi has been buying up Ubisoft shares and attempting a takeover of the company for several months.

"Ready for the fight. Independence #ubisoft day".

ORIGINAL STORY 27/9/16 10.45am: Out of nowhere, Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel has got the game's fans excited for a sequel all over again.

Ancel, also creator of Rayman and the Rabbids series, has posted a new piece of artwork to his personal Instagram.

There's no explanation of where the art comes from - a fan, perhaps? Or maybe from someone at his Ubisoft Montpellier studio? - but it appears to show BG&E's porky character Pey'j as an infant.

It's odd because Pey'j is an adult in BG&E - he is the adopted uncle of main character Jade. The other character in the picture, the Kurt Russell-looking chap, is also a mystery.

Beyond Good & Evil launched in 2003 for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox. Critically acclaimed, it has won cult classic status, but the past 13 years have seen a sequel repeatedly fail to get off the ground.

The exact status of Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still unknown. Ancel's next project is Wild, his oddball survival game being developed outside of Ubisoft at his indie studio Wild Sheep.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 has been glimpsed numerous times over the years, although what - if anything - might remain of earlier ideas is completely unknown.

It's unclear, even, how much time Ancel is spending at Ubisoft at the moment. He remains an employee despite spending much of his time at Wild Sheep, which also appears to encompass a number of other top Ubisoft Montpellier staff.

The last we heard, back at E3 2016, was that BG&E2 had not been canned but that Ubisoft did not know when it might be unveiled.

Ancel has always said he plans to release Beyond Good & Evil 2 at some point, and fans of the original have certainly not given up hope.

I caught up with Ancel at the release of his last game, Rayman Legends, and visited Ubisoft Montpellier to discover what state the mythical Beyond Good & Evil 2 was in.