Image: Activision
Captain Price and Task Force 141 will return to fight a classic baddie in Modern Warfare 3.
Activision has finally unveiled this year’s Call of Duty, which serves as a sequel to last year’s Modern Warfare 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will launch on November 10, 2023, bringing back Captain John Price and the rest of Task Force 141 for another face-off with a returning franchise villain: Vladimir Makarov.
Here’s the first teaser for the game:
This teaser is, in fact, just a teaser for a teaser. In typical Activision fashion, the publisher is saving a full reveal for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for a limited-time event in Call of Duty: Warzone. The event is expected to kick off on August 17, 2023, though we’ll likely get more details on how players can participate over the coming days.
In the short teaser, Captain Price ominously talks about cutting heads off snakes before saying, “he’s not new,” and, “never bury your enemies alive.” The teaser shifts to Modern Warfare 3’s official logo right after a brief glimpse of Makarov and Captain Price himself, hinting that the duo will come to a head in the third game. Makarov appeared in the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) before becoming the main antagonist of its sequel Modern Warfare 3 (2011). It looks like the rebooted Modern Warfare series is coming full circle by bringing its main villain back.
Makarov was first teased as this year’s Call of Duty big bad at the tail end of Modern Warfare 2 last year, during a post-credits scene. In it, a group of Russian terrorists assemble makeshift guns during a flight before receiving a text from Makarov warning the group not to speak Russian. This references Modern Warfare 2 (2009)’s infamous ‘No Russian’ level, which saw a group of Russian terrorists commit mass murder in an airport.
We might finally see what happens to that flight in this year’s Modern Warfare 3, seeing as the teaser starts with audio of guns being assembled on an airplane, and a phone vibrating from a text. Last year, it was reported that Activision planned to launch an expansion for Modern Warfare 2 in 2023 instead of releasing a brand-new game. It seems the publisher has since changed its mind, and is putting out a direct sequel this year instead.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was revealed in the midst of Microsoft’s complicated takeover of Activision, which might still be unresolved by its release date of November 10, 2023.