Have Zombies always been a threat in Modern Warfare universe? Soap's old mission suggests likewise

Zombies are officially coming to Call of Duty's upcoming title, Modern Warfare 3. However, it seems like the threat of the undead is familiar to the revamped Modern Warfare universe. In the most recent trailer, an old mission featuring Captain Johnny "Soap" MacTavish and Station Chief Kate Laswell shows that our heroes have been dealing with this threat secretly for a long time.

Here is a full breakdown of what we have gathered from the trailer footage so far.

Note: Some aspects of this article are speculative.

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Modern Warfare 3 zombies might be a threat from the past

The introduction of zombies to the Modern Warfare universe ties into the broader narrative that started back in 2020. If you remember correctly, during Warzone's early days, in a short cinematic trailer, it was revealed that Soap engaged in a different mission. Hence, he couldn't join Price and Farah when things went south in Verdansk.

Coming to the zombies reveal trailer released by Call of Duty, it looks like Victor Zakhaev planned something sinister before he died in Bunker 10 in Warzone. The next thing we see is that Laswell and Soap have been preparing for a mission to fix something that Zakhaev did.

Soap and Laswell talking about the new threat (Image via Activision)

Here is what Laswell said in the chopper,

"We got intel that Zakhaev was planning something months ago."

Then she mentioned that one of their checkpoints reported hostile contact, and the whole town went dark immediately. In response, Soap emphasizes,

"Until we know what's going on, contaiment is the name of the game. No one gets in and nothing, I mean nothing, gets out."

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Operation: Deadbolt and how it started in Call of Duty

Zakhaev being dead in the current timeline and Soap's absence in the Warzone story suggest that this secret mission was dated during the heyday of Verdansk.

The aforementioned mission was codenamed "Operation Deadbolt". The presence of both Laswell and Soap in Modern Warfare 2 could mean that they successfully contained the outbreak. Furthermore, we have yet to hear about this threat, which also indicated that Soap kept his word and nothing got out.

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Conclusion

It can be expected that the forthcoming zombie lore isn't actually a present thing to be dealt with. Possibly, the problem has been taken care of, and we are now going to see how it unfolded in the beginning. Hence, we are going back to its roots and uncovering how it started in the first place.

That said, it is fair to assume that the fear of the undead has always been there in the world of Modern Warfare, lurking behind the shadows, never fully revealed until now.