This may be the face of the next Watch Dogs (opens in new tab) protagonist. Well, the part of his face that isn’t covered by a bandana, thick-rimmed glasses, and a ball cap, anyway. NerdLeaks spotted an Instagram post by actor Cort King (opens in new tab) (who goes by @thekingcort) showing what appears to be a new character sporting a familiar gun-and-smartphone combo, hashtagged Watch Dogs 2.
“Had a blast doing motion capture work as the lead character in a new video game series! (= #actor #motioncapture #artist #videogames #ps4 #xbox #art #work #comingsoon #WatchDogs2”, Cort wrote on the image caption.
Here’s the real leak we spotted days ago.Watch Dogs 2 will have a new protagonist. This. #WatchDogs2 pic.twitter.com/UpfBJzeJv9May 3, 2016
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King posted the image on April 7 and has since set his account to private, though it still shows up on Google’s cache (opens in new tab) of his page. Of course, he could just be hoaxing us, but that character render does look about right. And Ubisoft announced back in February that it plans to release Watch Dogs 2 (opens in new tab) sometime before April 2017, so now we’re just waiting for details.
Vigilante hacker Aiden Pearce led the first Watch Dogs, and while (mildest of spoilers) its ending left him open to appear in a sequel, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ubisoft tried out a new protagonist instead. Watch Dogs’ hack-the-open-world shenanigans felt like they had a ton of not-quite-tapped potential, so a new hero could give it a little bit more room to flourish.
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