^{Image: Xbox Game Studios}

The Gears of War franchise is getting a prequel set before the original trilogy.

The Coalition has revealed its next Gears of War game, and it shockingly isn’t a sequel to Gears 5. Instead, the developer is turning back time to make a prequel that depicts the Locust invasion on Emergence Day through the eyes of Marcus Fenix and more characters from the original trilogy.

Titled Gears of War: E-Day, the Xbox game harkens back to this shooter franchise’s golden age, complete with a reference to the infamous ‘Mad World’ ad for the original game. Here’s the trailer:

Gears of War: E-Day goes back to the franchise’s roots

Fans of the Gears of War third-person shooter franchise will know that newer entries have moved on from characters in the original trilogy like Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, focusing on a new generation of COG heroes. While Gears of War 4 wasn’t too well-received by fans, Gears 5 was a visually breathtaking blockbuster of a videogame that brought the franchise back to its former glory - but also left fans on quite a cliffhanger. Instead of resolving that story, however, The Coalition is moving backwards to tell a new story set before the original trilogy.

Gears of War: E-Day looks every bit as stunning as Gears 5, starring younger versions of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago as they face down a brutal ambush against the Locust horde. Set 14 years before the original Gears of War, the game focuses on the titular E-Day - a cataclysmic invasion that ends up shaping the rest of the franchise's events. We’ll see a slightly different take on familiar characters and weapons, like the iconic MK1 Lancer that now features a bayonet instead of a chainsaw.

We’ll likely see how that gun got a chainsaw in the first place in E-Day, but more importantly, we’ll see Marcus and Dom form a brotherhood as they go to war against the Locust horde. The duo come into this story grieving over Dom’s brother Carlos, who died on the battlefield of an earlier war with Marcus. The Coalition notes in an Xbox Wire article that despite moving forward with this origin story, it has no plans to abandon the ongoing storyline told in Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 - so we’ll just have to wait a few more years to see how that wraps up.

Gears of War: E-Day has no release date. Check out more announcements and trailers from Xbox Games Showcase 2024 here.

Gears of War: E-Day takes the franchise back to its glory days