As the Black Ops 6 viral marketing has hit full stride, fans have been waiting to see what favorite characters will return for its campaign. Rumors have flown about Woods, Adler, Reznov, Mason, and many other characters from across the Black Ops franchise. One of those characters has just been confirmed – by accident. Russell Adler from Black Ops: Cold War was accidentally revealed as returning in Black Ops 6 by the Call of Duty social team.
WHO IS RUSSELL ADLER
Adler, in Black Ops Cold War, represented the darker side of the clandestine operations undertaken by the US Government. He is the phrase “the ends justify the means” given form. He and his cronies kidnap and brainwash an enemy combatant, however this ultimately leads to lives being saved by preventing the Cold War from turning hot.
Our protagonist is this combatant, and after helping Adler save the world in the good ending of Cold War, he decides to kill them to tie up any loose ends. This shows Adler is not afraid to do whatever is necessary, even if it means eliminating the people close to him. This moral ambiguity is unusual of Call of Duty deuteragonists, and made him an incredibly interesting companion throughout the campaign.
His actions, however morally dark, are the one thing keeping the world off the brink of annihilation.
His standout personality and interesting story means he stuck out among the new characters of Black Ops: Cold War. The surprising popularity he had after the games release meant that rumors of his return began to spin as soon as the next Treyarch title began to loom on the horizon.
THE FUTURE OF ADLER IN BLACK OPS 6
With an arc like his in Black Ops: Cold War, where could Adler be headed in Black Ops 6? Let’s take a look at his post-launch arc in Cold War’s DLC season to start.
- Adler faces off against Kuzmin, leading to an ambush at the Mall at the Pines, where he is captured and taken by Stitch.
- By April 19, 1984, Adler is taken to Verdansk, prompting a mission by Frank Woods, Karla Rivas, Terrel Wolf, and a strike team.
- Despite encountering challenges, the team discovers intel pointing to Adler’s location in Verdansk, leading to a rescue mission.
- Stitch attempts to brainwash Adler, mirroring past events with Dragovich and Steiner, but Adler is rescued and reintegrated into NATO.
- Adler’s involvement in securing data from a crashed satellite in Algeria raises suspicions about his actions, prompting a plan to capture him.
- Mason successfully snaps Adler out of his brainwashing, leading to a joint investigation in Verdansk following a series of explosions.
- Adler finds Stitch at the grave of Perseus and confronts him at gunpoint, Before being shot by Adler, stitch revealed the original Perseus had already died and been replaced by a network of Perseus spies.
- Afterward, Adler and his team would find Captain Butcher in an abandoned bunker. He would tell them the story of how he ended up there, setting up Call of Duty Vanguard.
Outside of meta-textual necessary events like setting up Vanguard’s storyline, there seems to be a very consistent theme for Adler across the post-launch storyline. This theme is that of an endless, sisyphean struggle to preserve peace in the world. Adler is continuously haunted by demons from his past, and always just one step away from everything falling apart.
Over and over he finds out about a threat and is forced to get his hands dirty to once again save the world. Adler seems to begin to understand that his battle will never end once Stitch reveals the Perseus spy network.
Could Black Ops 6 see a continuation of this arc? Will Adler still be hunting down the remnants of the Perseus spies even in the 90’s? Or could it be that we simply see a continuation of this arc in terms of the themes: could we still see Adler working in the shadows for the CIA, continuing to do their dirty work to keep the world safe at any cost?
For now, we can only speculate. For now, let’s break down the details of Adler’s return getting shown to us early.
BLACK OPS 6 ADLER REVEAL LEAKED
The way we actually learned of Adler’s return is a very unique and interesting situation. When Call of Duty uploaded their blog post earlier today, they accidentally used the wrong thumbnail when discussing the Live Action reveal trailer – this thumbnail features none other than Adler himself:
The picture depicts Adler in a trench coat on a rainy night. The shot looks to be taken from a cutscene. There is also another character on the right speaking to him, out of focus and closer to the camera. This character looks extremely similar to the character we see in the Black Ops 6 Key Art shown so far. Is it possible this is the main character of the campaign, and here we see him meeting with Adler partway through the story?
THE END
For a FULL video breakdown on the return of Adler, check this out:
For now, we have to wait and see more. But we at DETONATED are excited to see the confirmed return of Russell Adler, and will be ready to cover any more Black Ops 6 Campaign news as soon as it drops. Keep tuned to DETONATED socials for more information.
