WMG / Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

The old Modern Warfare arc will start where this game left off, with major deviations.

Implied by the reveal that Price is forming Task Force 141, featuring some familiar faces. However to fit the new storyline there will have to be major deviations from the previous one. Specifically that missions will now be set in the early 2020s, Soap doesn't go through his training sessions, TF 141 will be already formed and Imran Zakhaev will have died in 1996 (for real this time).

This game continues from an easter egg in Modern Warfare Remastered where Captain Price killed Makarov in the botched Zakhaev assassination mission

And thus, Makarov's reign of terror, starting from the airport massacre, didn't happened, and the Ultranationalists simply took over Russia through different means such as good-old election and people power while the US and SAS coalition is preoccupied elsewhere.

• As well as how Gaz managed to survive, which could happen thanks to an extremely rare Good Bad Bug in the original Call of Duty 4 where if a generic soldier survives the missile attack, he could gun down Zakhaev before killing the named characters.
• Jossed. The game is an Ultimate Universe take on the series.

Ghost will survive and get a much bigger role in this continuity

Given that Ghost was so popular that Activision literally made an entire COD entry centered around his expies, it's unlikely that they will make the mistake of killing him off again.

• Confirmed. Though he is The Ghost in this one, only being mentioned by Price in The Stinger as a pick for Task Force 141.

China will be the major antagonist country in the reboot

The original Call of Duty Modern Warfare game had Russia as being the main antagonist country to United States and Task Force 141 for being the major player of pulling the strings of the events of the game. It's very likely that the reboot will have China as the main antagonist country instead to reflect on the deterioration of U.S.-China relations under President Donald Trump much like how the original Modern Warfare had Russia as the main antagonist country to reflect on the deteriorating relations between the United States and Russia.

• If a flat-out World War III between the superpowers will not be a thing like the old continuity, it will most likely be a foreign official from China or Russia that might be the main antagonist that will be pulling the strings that would be The Unfought. Considering most of modern warfare in current history involves "proxy wars" and combating terrorism involves supporting different factions for political reasons rather than a flat-out war between superpowers, it will most likely be a Chinese or a Russian government official that would be supplying weapons a rogue Middle Eastern militia group for political purposes that would be at odds with the protagonists. A conventional war between two superpowers will be highly unrealistic (especially during Modern Warfare 2 where should a war between Russia and NATO break out, it would have resulted in a nuclear war exchange). The devs may consider how major superpowers play a role when combating terrorism and modern warfare and how governments will support different factions in a region for political reasons (which is evident in the war with ISIS where United States backed Kurdish militia groups and Syrian rebels while the Russian government-backed Assad's regime and Iran when defeating ISIS for different political reasons).
• Jossed, it's Russia once again, led by a rogue general. And real Russians are not happy.

The reboot will also focus on right-wing terrorism.

Assuming that the main focus on the reboot is global terrorism, the series is more or less likely to look into far-right terrorism alongside Islamic terrorism and highlight how right-wing terrorism is just as dangerous as Islamic terrorism.

• I think they will probably save that for a sequel.
  • So JOSSED.
    • To expand on the potential Saved for the Sequel aspect, the events of the first reboot game, such as the Al-Qatala terrorist attack on Piccadilly Circus, would lead to a spike in neo-Nazis, neo-Crusaders, and other RightWingMilitiaFanatics that think all Arabic/Islamic people are terrorists down to their cultural or even genetic level (refusing to draw any distinctions between, say, Al-Qatala and the Urzikstan Liberation Force - not that Hadir joining Al-Qatala midway to team up in killing General Barkov helps, as it lends credence to the otherwise flimsy conspiracy that Al-Qatala and the ULF are one and the same), and plan to exterminate all Muslims to "protect Western Civilization from Islamic terrorism". Bonus points if this leads to a reboot version of "No Fighting In The War Room", except that it's an AMERICAN nuclear silo that's been taken over by the terrorists (possibly with the help of a rebooted version of General Shepherd leading some rogue members of the US armed forces, who's even MORE of a General Ripper than the original series), with the aim of melting every Islamic nation from North Africa to Pakistan into nuclear slag (whether or not that would still trigger Mutually Assured Destruction is something they don't realize/care about, or even actively DESIRE).

The reboot will also focus on left-wing terrorism.

One concerning international security weakness in recent years that hasn't received much global media attention has been the resurgence of many communist terrorists in the late 2010s after it seemed like most of these types of groups had been soundly beaten down during the 1990s and 2000s. Some of the most notable examples of left-wing terror groups greatly increasing their attacks around the time of the game's release include the New People's Army in the Philippines, the Shining Path in Peru, FARC & the ELN in Colombia, and the Naxalites in eastern India.

• Partially confirmed. The main antagonist faction is a Renegade Russian once again. The Wolf, a stand-in of Osama Bin Laden, is also more anarchist than fundamentalist.
• Also somewhat confirmed in the sense that Farah & Hadir's militia is clearly modeled after Kurdish militias currently fighting in Syria, most likely the formerly American-backed socialist YPG. Several of these real-life groups are genuine terrorists with communist sympathies, such as the PKK's HPG which has committed many terrorist acts against Turkey and was designated a terrorist organization by the West soon after 9/11, long before the Syrian civil war began (for instance, Japan classified the PKK as a terror organization in July 2002). At the same time, though, also downplayed as none of the Urzikstani militiamen in the game express any sentiments that could be considered sympathetic to communism.

There will be a level where you play as the main antagonist again, and a drone strike will be involved.

• Jossed, although there are levels where drones and other airstrikes are called in by the player.

This game will actually have elements of Deconstruction, if it is not a Deconstructor Fleet.

Somewhere along the lines of Spec Ops: The Line, although it is questionable whether the deconstruction will work well, unlike Haze.

• Zig-Zagged. Although there are scenes where you decide on whether to shoot defenseless people Surrendering to you, the antagonists are Card Carrying Villains full stop. The first campaign mission also starts with allied aircraft dropping white phosphorous bombs on enemy soldiers. However, the game also forces you to make many morally questionable actions and let innocents die to save the many, such as killing a reluctant terrorist husband of a mother, and having to let a boy and his father die in order to complete the mission.

In the sequel, Ramirez will still be a rather Memetic Badass and Hypercompetent Sidekick.

And also it will be acknowledged either through Lampshading or some characters giving Ramirez praise for his competency and efforts.

Urzikstan is an ex-Soviet republic.

Though the conflict draws heavily from Syrian Civil War imagery, the background to it seems to be a mix between the Chechen Wars and the Tajikistani Civil War instead: a country geographically close to Russia falls into a civil war in the '90s that involves terror attacks on Russian soil, prompting a large-scale military intervention. Judging from Al-Qatala's nationalist motive, it's possible that they had existed as an anti-Russian group from the Soviet years. Being an ex-Soviet state, it's also a natural target for the Russian Ultranationalists, who are an extremely powerful political bloc in this timeline - hence explaining how Barkov got the political support, resources and manpower to spend twenty years turning it into his personal fiefdom.

• The resistance flag nameplate unlockable in multiplayer resembles the Chechen flag.

Alex's real name is actually Simon Riley and he survives his Heroic Sacrifice at the chemical weapons factory and becomes an independent freedom fighter with the pseudonym of "Ghost"

• Jossed, Ghost has been announced as one of the new Season 2 multiplayer operatives and from what his British accent and SAS affiliations indicates, it was clear that this Ghost is not Alex who was an American CIA operative.
• Alternatively, Alex is actually Gary Sanderson and is given/takes up the name "Roach", appearing in the next Modern Warfare somewhere outside of Task Force 141.
• Some might disagree with the theory that "Alex" is Gary "Roach" Sanderson, since he had been established in lore to be British and a member of the 22nd S.A.S. Regiment just like "Soap", as stated in his journal. Given how they did not change Gaz's nationality, I doubt they would do the same for "Alex". However, Alex can alternatively be a reimagining of Joseph Allen, one of the protagonists from the original Modern Warfare 2. The backstories of both Allen and "Alex" seem to match up almost perfectly: Both are former members of the U.S. Army prior to joining the CIA and Task Force 141, with the only difference being the fact that Allen was a U.S. Army Ranger and "Alex" was a member of Delta Force. Also, Allen's cover alias while infiltrating Vladimir Makarov's Inner Circle was "Alexei Borodin", with "Alex" sharing the first four letters of the first name. Another thing that links them together is during the mission "Embedded", where prior to going outside Alex disguises himself and asks Farah "How do I look?", which is almost word for word what Allen asks General Shepherd when he gets tattooed and looks like "one of the bad guys" for his undercover assignment.

The sequel will feature a fully realized Mile High Club mission.

• In Call of Duty 4, Mile High Club was retconned to be a Task Force 141 operation after Modern Warfare 2 was released. Because Task Force 141 now exists in-universe prior to the events that would replace Call of Duty 4 in their universe, a mission in the sequel would be the TF141 mission to board a private plane and rescue a VIP who has key intel on the movements of Al-Qalata's leader, Khaled Al-Asad.

Mace might actually be a reimagining of a character from the old Modern Warfare continuity

There is a theory that Mace's true identity is Marcus Washington from the Modern Warfare 2: Ghost comics. In the comics, Washington was a member of Simon "Ghost" Riley's team sent to take down drug cartel boss Manuel "El Gordo" Roba. However, Washington and another teammate, Kevin Sparks, were captured and brutally tortured and brainwashed by the cartel. Both Washington and Sparks were sent after Ghost and were responsible for murdering his entire family before both men were killed by Ghost.

Obviously, not all of this has to translate over to the new continuity, but there are enough visual cues to make the compelling case that Mace might be a reimagining of Washington: Both men are African-American former special forces operators from the US Army (Washington was a member of the US Army Special Forces, otherwise known as the "Green Berets", while Mace was a member of the US Army Rangers) who now work for opposing forces. They also both used to be teammates of Ghost prior to changing sides.