Ah, what could have been. We're still likely years away from The Elder Scrolls VI launching, but according to former The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim lead and The Elder Scrolls loremaster at Bethesda Kurt Kuhlmann, the original plan was to (probably) have it out by now.
According to an interview between Kuhlmann and PC Gamer, the plan was for Bethesda to jump right back into Tamriel after Fallout 4. At that time, Todd Howard had also allegedly promised him the lead design role on The Elder Scrolls VI.
"Of course, after Fallout 4 we didn't go to TES6, we made Fallout 76, and then even then we didn't make TES6, we made Starfield, which became this extremely long project compared to other ones," Kuhlmann said. "So from my point of view, I've been waiting like 11 years to be the lead on TES6."
"It wasn't just my expectation—I had been told that that was going to happen," he continued. "And they made the decision, no, you're not going to be the lead." Kuhlmann does admit later that thinking back on it that he might not have enjoyed the role.
Ambitions were high for The Elder Scrolls VI when Kuhlmann worked at Bethesda, but now he's working at the Tencent-owned studio Lightspeed LA, after enduring "some things that had been going on for a long time that I'd not been super happy with."
The Elder Scrolls VI is currently in development.