For the first time, the Call of Duty: Warzone, Black Ops, Zombies and Modern Warfare storylines are all connected
Behind enemy lines.
For the first time, Call of Duty's four main storylines are all connected.
It means the worlds of Warzone, Modern Warfare, Black Ops and Zombies appear canon within a single universe.
THERE MAY BE BLACK OPS COLD WAR SPOILERS AHEAD.
This week, developer Treyarch released a new map for Black Ops Cold War's hugely popular Zombies mode called Firebase Z.
Now players have had a chance to run through the map, they have discovered a raft of Easter eggs as well as an ending cutscene that connects to Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare series.
The ending cutscene revolves around a character called Lev Kravchenko, who is revealed as leader of Omega group. Watch the ending cutscene in the video below from YouTuber MrRoflWaffles:
Kravchenko is a long-running Black Ops series antagonist who appears in the 1980s-set Black Ops Cold War as a somewhat minor character in the ninth campaign mission, Desperate Measures. Here, inside the KGB headquarters in Moscow, the player meets with former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Kravchenko and pal Imran Zakhaev, father of Victor Zakhaev, aka the mysterious Mr. Z from 2019's Modern Warfare game and the main antagonist of Warzone.
Check out Imran Zakhaev in Black Ops Cold War in the video below, from YouTube channel Generic Gaming:
Players had already connected Black Ops to Modern Warfare after spotting Imran Zakhaev in the Cold War campaign, confirming both series and of course Warzone, which continues the Modern Warfare storyline, take place within the same universe and timeline. Now, the world of Zombies slots in, with Kravchenko's appearance in the new map's ending cutscene and his association with Zakhaev tying the worlds together.
Black Ops' integration into battle royale behemoth Warzone means the streams have been crossed for some time. Seeing Black Ops' Sergeant Woods join forces with Modern Warfare's Captain Price was odd at first but commonplace now.
But the suggestion here is that beneath the gritty realism of the Modern Warfare series and the paranoia of Black Ops lies the current Zombies story, swelling the Call of Duty canon.
Meanwhile, this ending cutscene suggests the next Zombies map is set in the Ural mountains. Black Ops Cold War has a Fireteam map called Ruka that's set in the Ural Mountains, and it has a campaign level set in Mount Yamantau, a Russian nuclear facility located within the Ural Mountains. The plot thickens...