Metroid Database.com

Joystiq got an exclusive interview with the father of Samus, Yoshio Sakamoto. In it, they ask him several questions regarding the Prime series (which interviewers seem to not be able to resist asking, even though they should already know that Sakamoto had very little involvement with, and answers the questions as such), and working with Team Ninja. They also touch on the rumorware Metroid Dread. Sakamoto responds:

"While there actually was a point where some teams were meeting to discuss if it was possible to create a 2D Metroid for DS using a relatively small team size, it's not something that we ever really announced or thought of as "Metroid Dread." But whenever people bring out that idea, we recognize that the basic concept is something that we can't say never existed. But at the same time, we can't of course make any official comment about a Metroid Dread like project coming out.

Our main goal here is to, as I said earlier, first raise knowledge about the Metroid universe, and the Samus character, before we start to introduce different elements like online, or even going back to another handheld game for the next in the series. So there's nothing coming immediately. We want to think about these new challenges first.

But, of course, we never say never."

--Infinity's End