We are never getting to the dark continent. Maybe those theories a while back that the series ends by establishing new guardians for the dark continent are true so we will never truly explore it. I think the author kind of fell on a trap considering:
- His health problems first
- He added and convoluted the later arc with too many plotpoints, and drags a lot. Same mistake Oda did in the new world and in general with the series, I think he should have gotten to the yonko a lot sooner instead of having warlord villains over and over and over again. Crocodile was enough, Enel for a different style of villain, same with Lucci, move straight sabaody/impel down/marineford trio and straight to new world with the Yonko saga straight up.
Similarly with HxH but even worse considering the breaks he has to take, forget about dark continent.