MW3 Zombies: The Next Chapter of Dark Aether Starts with a Huge Revelation

When Modern Warfare 3 was revealed to have a Zombies mode that followed the ongoing story of Zombies, we were unsure of how Treyarch was going to approach establishing a third time period in the fast-growing narrative of the Dark Aether saga. We finally received our first look this week with the Modern Warfare 3 Zombies cinematic reveal trailer, following several teasers that showed clear links to the original chapter of Dark Aether from Black Ops Cold War. There’s a lot to cover so let’s get into it.

Dark Aether was established following the ending of the original Aether saga in ‘Black Ops 4.’ It promised a brand new chapter for Zombies, with a small hint of Aether mixed in here and there. After all, it’s a sequel! Cold War focused on a Zombie Outbreak set during the 1980s, following the discovery of Projekt Endstation, a Nazi research base in Poland, by the Soviet group known as Omega. Over the course of the game, the clandestine group of Requiem battled Omega in and around the Ural Mountains to attempt to prevent the Outbreak from spreading.

The story of Cold War culminated with Samantha Maxis heroically trapping herself and The Forsaken (an invading threat that tricked both Omega and Requiem) back in the Dark Aether. In the aftermath, the elusive director of Requiem shut down the group and revealed himself to be Eddie Richtofen.

Vanguard Zombies returned us to World War 2, where the Nazi group ‘Die Wahrheit’ was tasked with raiding ancient relics from across the globe. When the Nazis behind Projekt Endstation unknowingly breached the Dark Aether for the first time, these relics activated, allowing the Elder Gods of the Dark Aether to bond with humans. Die Wahrheit leader Wolfram Von List bonded with ‘Kortifex The Deathless,’ who gave Von List his very own army of undead soldiers. Allied forces bonded with other Elder Gods, and with the help of Professor Gabriel Kraftt, a demonologist who was forced to work under Nazi rule, they successfully defeated Kortifex before he could destroy all realms but the Dark Aether.

While Vanguard Zombies was a part of the Dark Aether saga, there was a degree of separation between it and the events that had taken place in ‘Cold War.’ This was the luxury of being a prequel, allowing Treyarch to widen the scope of the story with new characters and concepts introduced throughout Vanguard’s lifecycle. Modern Warfare Zombies, however, follows both Vanguard and Cold War, and there are inevitably some questions that are just too big to avoid. Rather than playing coy the entire year and attempting to avoid the events of the past two games, it looks like Treyarch is planning to provide a few answers, remain silent on others, and raise further questions of its own.

A New Kind of Modern Warfare

The MW3 cinematic starts with a squad led by Modern Warfare alumni Viktor Zakhaev breaking into a building at an unknown location. Upon entering a room decorated with Cold War-era equipment, mysterious cans of soda, and a toy cymbal monkey gathering dust, the fireteam locates a mysterious device surrounded by four corpses lost to time. Zakhaev opens the device to find what he’s been looking for – two vials of Aetherium.

As Zakhaev and his team escape, they are attacked by military police. Left with no other option, Zakhaev throws one of the vials and returns to the confinement of his armoured vehicle. The vessel for the Aetherium explodes as a haze of purple fog fills the combat zone. Both Zakhaev’s allies and enemies turn into zombies as a twisted smile takes hold of Zakhaev’s face. We then get a look at the ‘Operation Deadbolt’ briefing by Kate Laswell and Soap McTavish. Joining them is none other than Sergei Ravenov, an Omega deserter who was a massive help to Requiem in Cold War.

This cinematic looks and sounds incredible. It sets the scene well for the newest iteration of Zombies, and seeing Ravenov return from Cold War in a significant role is exciting and raises questions about what the silver fox has been up to since Sam’s sacrifice in the 1980s. He may be the key to us finding answers to some of the biggest questions we have. Ravenov was one of the most popular new characters in Zombies and even seemed set to have a bundle in the Cold War store before being quietly removed. (No reason was ever given, but it’s widely speculated the bundle was canceled due to the war in Ukraine.) Despite this beautiful reunion with Ravenov, there is an uncomfortable truth we have been trying to avoid mentioning.

Beneath the Cobwebs

There’s no easy way to say this. The Department Heads of Requiem, our quasi-crew that fans grew to love in Cold War: Grigori Weaver, Elizabeth Grey, Oskar Strauss, and Mackenzie Carver, are almost certainly the four corpses hidden away with the Aetherium, each covered from skull to phalanx in cobwebs. Alarm bells rang for many when we caught a good look at the first skeleton and its eyepatch. Not to mention the teasers prior to the cinematic also featured pictures of the Requiem heads. Granted, we are roughly 40 years after the events of Cold War, and time does come for us all, but there are a few things not fully adding up. This leaves us daring to speculate that everything may not be quite what it seems.

Before we get into some things about the cinematic that stick out, it’s important to think about Requiem and, in particular, its former director – Eddie. The last we saw of the Requiem Heads, they were being arrested as Eddie tied up some of his loose ends at the end of the Forsaken quest. Now they’re in an unknown – but likely Middle Eastern – location full of Cold War tech, including perks and wonder weapons? It seems a bit suspicious, and we are likely missing quite a few pieces of vital information between Cold War and MW3.

It is not outside the realm of possibility that Eddie is involved with this latest Outbreak. We do not know the “board of directors” he answers to, what Project Janus entails, his overall agenda, or if his intentions are good or evil. He certainly wants us to believe they are good, but we probably shouldn’t take him at face value just yet. However, what we do know about him is he is more than happy to manipulate and deceive in order to get what he wants. He ordered Peck to throw Samantha into the Dark Aether at Firebase Z. Not only did he have everyone paranoid for months, but he was the mole at Requiem all along. He ordered Klaus to kill the CIA operatives working in Berlin. He put Samantha into some very difficult positions to strengthen her powers. There is yet to be a line that he doesn’t cross in order to get the job done.

Knowing what Eddie is capable of, he could’ve baited Zakhaev into starting a new Outbreak by tipping him off about the location of the Aetherium. Perhaps the Requiem Heads were accomplices in this, either through their own free will or because Eddie forced their hand or made them an offer. The fact that he didn’t have them disposed of as soon as Requiem was shut down means he must have had some use for them following the Forsaken. Let’s hope it was for positive means. There is also the possibility that he used the Requiem Heads as pawns and left them to die. Unfortunately, nothing is off the table for the best director ever.

From the small glimpse we saw of the room, a couple of things stick out. First of all, there is something peculiar about the device on the table storing the Aetherium. It has slots for four vials, yet when Zakhaev turns up, there are only two vials stored. Could there have been two other vials of Aetherium taken by someone else? There’s a chance there was only enough Aetherium for two vials to begin with, but this device looks too important not to have been built specifically for the task of storing Aetherium.

The most promising lead is the overhead shot of the table, where you can see the Requiem Heads holding hands. This could signify that they had accepted their fate and died in each other’s company, but if you look closely, you’ll notice that the right hands of two of the corpses seem to be attached to the device storing the Aetherium. Were they powering the device, or was it extracting something from them? It’s impossible to know at this point, but there seems to be more story to tell here, and it’s highly likely we’ll be returning to this room at some point in the future. It may not change their fate, but it gives hope. And that’s all we need right now!

It’s worth mentioning that this is Treyarch Zombies we’re talking about. One of the reasons it has remained while its competitor horde modes have long faltered is the gripping narrative that rewards dedicated players for keeping up with the lore and theorising about what comes next. The Aether story’s success and popularity were built on this kind of stuff: Everyone would come up with theories from map to map, new information would completely recontextualise what we’d previously known to be true, another Richtofen would pop up out of nowhere.

The prime example of Treyarch doing this kind of thing is the ending to Origins. It took three full years for us to get the full context of the ending. At the time, many were enraged at the thought that the entire Aether story had been a children’s game. Although many theories that were much closer to the truth came out following that initial knee-jerk reaction, it wasn’t until the intro cutscene of Revelations in 2016 that we learned the Origins ending and Revelations intro take place almost simultaneously, and we were able to fully conclude what the Origins ending meant. Treyarch absolutely loves to sweep the rug from under our feet, and we can’t help but shake the feeling that this is the plan for Requiem. We don’t know when, we don’t know where, and we don’t know how much it’ll change – but we’re waiting.

The Case for a Requiem Crew

One of the most vocal pieces of feedback regarding recent Zombies instalments has been the lack of a ‘crew.’ The decision to use operators allows for more customization and helps Zombies integrate into the overall Call of Duty infrastructure (progression, bundles, battle pass, etc.), but when it comes to in-game dialogue and connecting with characters and the story, it’s night and day comparing what we used to get with a core cast of four characters, and the more generic dialogue we receive now with operators.

After the Chaos Story and the crew of Scarlett, Diego, Shaw, and Bruno got off to a false start in Black Ops 4, Treyarch (or Activision) may be worried about committing to another Zombies crew that isn’t the iconic squad of Richtofen, Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo. Although Victis is looked back on more fondly now, they were also derided following their debut in Black Ops 2.

If Treyarch were to return to a playable crew in round-based Zombies in COD 2024, making the playable crew consist of Weaver, Strauss, Grey, and Carver would be an absolute no-brainer. They are characters that we’ve learned a lot about, have connections with major characters like Eddie and Sam, and all have unique personalities that would make for enjoyable back-and-forth banter.

We’ve had this thought for a while; the MW3 Zombies reveal only consolidates it. Regardless of their ultimate fate, the Requiem Heads can still play a key part in 2024 since it’s likely set between the events of Cold War and MW3. While some may feel the stakes are lowered by knowing their end, Treyarch would be able to use what we think we know against us if there is indeed a twist waiting down the line. Even if they are truly dead, the anticipation of ‘something bad is going to happen’ could be a unique way to capture players’ interest and enable some emotional character moments – something that really resonated with players in Black Ops 3 with each of the summoning key sacrifices.

At the end of the day, the fate of the Requiem Heads is in Treyarch’s hands. We hope their story isn’t over yet but trust the incredible writing staff at Treyarch with whatever direction they take. The cinematic alone shows the care they have for the characters and the story of the Dark Aether. The execution was perfect because we genuinely do not know what has happened to Weaver, Grey, Strauss, and Carver. They may well have locked themselves in a room and died a simple death, but there’s the perfect amount of doubt cast which allows players to be invested in the story and theorise like we have here. Whether we find out on the launch day of MW3, or we’re waiting another year or two, we will continue to believe in the survival of the department heads of Requiem.

Vicerimus Mortem. We Shall Have Conquered Death.