A Call of Duty modder has purportedly found a post-credits scene to the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 that changes the game’s narrative, based on its interpretation.

It’s an unexpected nugget for a trilogy that practically remade the series while also setting a new standard for military first-person shooters. In the game’s single-player campaign, players triumph over the primary bad guy, terrorist Vladimir Makarov, ending with one of the protagonists, Capt. John Price, dropping a cigar as Makarov’s body swings from an improvised hangman’s noose. Price dies from his wounds in the encounter, however.

In the purportedly cut post-credits scene that surfaced over the weekend, an “ominous stranger” appears in the distance, peering down the hallway at both as they die.

The cut sequence suggests a far different, and bigger, metaphorical ending to the series — basically that the “shadowman” represents Death, who comes to take Price as Price has taken Makarov.

Here’s the clip.

Developer Infinity Ward probably peeled back from this kind of a finale in order to leave open the possibility of Price returning later in the series, or at least not ending the storyline altogether.

And the landmark Modern Warfare series was indeed rebooted with 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, continuing to present day’s Modern Warfare 3.

When is the next Call of Duty coming out?

Call of Duty’s next installment is not confirmed but considering the rotation of studios that develop the game, Treyarch is believed to be working on an adventure set during the early 1990s offensive the United States launched into the Persian Gulf region.

This game would fit into the throwback “Black Ops” timeline Treyarch established with 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War and continued with 2010’s original Call of Duty: Black Ops.

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