In spite of its far-future setting, Black Ops III will still manage to find some way to fit in an appearance by Reznov.
Reznov is the common element between all of the Treyarch-produced COD games— it would be a shame if BO III didn't at least fit in some kind of token mention. Maybe some kind of ancient film reel of him, perhaps delivering some kind of message to the player.- I personally think Reznov will be the entire mastermind of the game's events. Connected to a neural system. Like Savato from Trauma Center. Polybius81.
Black Ops III will feature at least one other Mason as part of its main cast.
Maybe it's too obvious, but the as-yet-unnamed customizable player character could be Section's son/daughter? Granted, he was already middle-aged in 2025 and had no spouse, but nothing could stop him from marrying late. Black Ops II made the series into a generational story, and it makes sense that III would continue the tradition and have a Mason in there somewhere, if not as the protagonist than maybe a supporting character.- Wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Section to have a kid shortly after the events of Black Ops II despite his age, honestly. Section's 46 as of the game's regular missions in June 2025, which was the same age Alex was when Section was born. The only thing I'd see that would be "too obvious" would be if Karma turns out to be Mason the third's mother just because she's the only named female character Section interacted with more than once.
- Well, turns out it's not the case. Whoever the player(s) controls, it's not a Mason. There is mention in the Data Vault of a "C. Mason", so presumably Section did have a kid who joined the military, but they were deemed unsuitable for the Project Prometheus surgery.
Taylor is Reznov and BOIII is a futuristic remake of the original Black Ops
In Black Ops III, Reznov is not present, however there is a character called John Taylor, who saves you from the robot at the beginning, however, he is also in your mind, and is the main villain, but like Reznov, he is an enigma, the mission codenames eventually spell out WE ARE TAYLOR, the same way that Reznov is Dead or is he came out in the original game, the DNI is similar to the numbers, and the player is in a delusional state, believing that he is Taylor, the same delusional state that Alex Mason was in, who believed he was Reznov. The Robot at the beginning represents Kravchenko, as you miss the evac the same way Mason did in Operation 40, and you are pummeled to death by the robot, the exact same way Kravchenko grabs you and you get knocked unconscious by a Cuban soldier. Also Nova 6 is present in this game as well during the Singapore missions. So it's safe to say that Black Ops III is a remake of the original Black Ops with different characters.The Player is a Casanova Wannabe.
Imagine yourself in a frozen forest — I mean, in a military base. The Player tries to hit on every soldier of the opposite gender s/he sees. Eventually, one irritated soldier says, "This idiot thinks s/he's a player!" The nickname sticks, and the rest is history. His/Her Callsign Really Is Player!There exists a timeline in which the events of Black Ops III happened literally as they appear in the campaign.
Yes, yes, I know— blah blah, player was Dead All Along, the scrolling text reveals it...pffft. That's boring. Overused twist, if you ask me. But— the existence of a Multi Verse, as revealed in the Nightmares storyline, leaves things open for a version of the campaign where it wasn't all just in Player's head.And frankly, that makes things a bit more satisfying, not just because they actually happened, but also because their journey ends up being a strong parallel to Alex Mason's in the first Black Ops. Both of them struggle against some form of brainwashing or mental conditioning (the Numbers/Corvus) that makes them see and hear things that aren't there, they both endeavor to stop a Nova 6 outbreak after learning about a previous one, both of them have a CIA handler (Hudson/Kane) that their "normal" squadmate (Woods/Hendricks) doesn't trust...and in the end, they both end up with someone who's dead stuck in their head as a comforting, yet still destabilizing presence— Reznov/Taylor. They both even have a moment where they proclaim themselves to be that person! After surviving Zurich, Player probably ends up a broken man/woman, forever haunted by Taylor's digital ghost, before eventually running off and going rogue in search of a false lead like Mason did in '78.
The Player Character is the child/grandchild of David/Alex Mason
Because so far the Black Ops series was about the Masons, so why change?- Lending credence to this theory, the text scroll for the final mission, which is implied to all be in the Player's head, briefly has the phrase "Dragovich. Kravchenko. Steiner. These men must die." in the NATO phonetic alphabet. There's no reason for the Player to know that phrase unless s/he was raised on tales of old granddad Alex and his adventures in the first Cold War.
