Summary
- Black Ops 7 follows Black Ops 2’s story in the 2030s, involving past characters like David Mason and Menendez.
- The game faces challenges in canonizing Black Ops 2’s multiple endings and addressing character fates.
- Treyarch may retcon the Black Ops timeline to establish a new canon leading into Black Ops 7.
The recent Xbox Games Showcase capped things off with the full reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, leading to an explosion of discussion around the premise of 2025’s CoD entry. A lot of the current discourse around Black Ops 7 is related to the game’s nature as the second consecutive Black Ops release, with some fans wondering if this back-to-back involvement of Treyarch could lend itself to the same rushed content criticisms of 2023’s Modern Warfare 3.
Away from this, the reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 came in the form of an interesting trailer, confirming the pre-reveal theories of the game being a direct sequel to 2012’s Black Ops 2. Aside from its portrayal of robots and the advanced tech of its 2030s setting, the trailer for Black Ops 7 drew a lot of attention thanks to its involvement of iconic past characters like David Mason and Raul Menendez, with the return of the villain being one massive question mark alongside the uncertainty over how BO7 will handle the multiple endings of Black Ops 2 and the fate of its many major characters.
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Has Some Massive Decisions to Make For the Series’ Past
It had been theorized for quite some time that 2025’s Call of Duty title would directly continue from the story of Black Ops 2, with future-set games like Black Ops 3 not really possessing many direct links to the mainline narrative of the sub-franchise. Being set in the 2030s, it already seems clear that Black Ops 7 will operate in the middle-ground between Black Ops 2 and 3 in terms of the technology at the center of its gameplay and story, with it seeming likely that the game will see the return of more advanced movement mechanics like wall-running.
Carrying on from Black Ops 2‘s story makes it no wonder that David Mason appeared throughout the reveal trailer for Black Ops 7, with the son of iconic franchise protagonist Alex Mason being the main character of the 2012 title. It has also been confirmed that Michael Rooker will reprise the role of Mike Harper for Black Ops 7, with the appearance of Raul Menendez in the reveal trailer being another direct link to the franchise’s past.
Menendez’s role as the major antagonist of Black Ops 2 is considered one of the most memorable across Call of Duty as a whole, although the many endings of Black Ops 2 are largely centered around the different fates of the villain. The possible endings for Black Ops 2 can see Menendez be permanently imprisoned, die, or incite global riots, each being distinct enough to give Black Ops 7 the major task of deciding which of the game’s many endings is now considered canon.
Treyarch Has Already Taken Some Major Steps in Terms of Canonizing Black Ops 2’s Story
It is worth noting that Black Ops 6 canonized the fact that Alex Mason was accidentally killed at the hands of Frank Woods in Black Ops 2, with past information also suggesting that Menendez’s death in the game is also one of the official outcomes of the title. This could mean that Menendez’s appearance in the Black Ops 7 trailer is potentially a psychological apparition, with the trailer’s mind-bending visuals indicating a warped perception of reality throughout the game’s story.
Small sections of dialogue and data logs in Black Ops 3 allude to Menendez dying in 2025, with the figure’s appearance as an AI in the Black Ops 7 trailer being another potential justification for his presence.
This still leaves questions in terms of the fates of other characters like Karma and the aging Frank Woods, with Treyarch even potentially retconning the vague pre-existing Black Ops timeline to give a different canonized fate to Menendez prior to Black Ops 7‘s events. If David Mason’s execution of Menendez is in fact canon going into Black Ops 7, then he may appear as a Reznov-like hallucinated figure to David throughout the story, with there still being plenty of debate and intrigue over how Treyarch will handle the many moving parts of Black Ops‘ pre-existing timeline.