Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 showed up at Tokyo Game Show with a fresh trailer, and this one skips multiplayer entirely. It’s all campaign – and its biggest reveal is the face behind the voice threatening Captain Price.
Mads Mikkelsen enters the Modern Warfare story
Near the end of the trailer, a voice tells Price he’ll be made to “cry for mercy” while “everything and everyone [he] cares for dies in ways [he] can’t imagine.” The camera then pans to reveal Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. There’s no official confirmation of who exactly he’s playing, but based on that dialogue he looks set to be the campaign’s main antagonist.
It’s far from Mikkelsen’s first game role. He voiced Le Chiffre in the 2008 tie-in 007: Quantum of Solace, reprising his Casino Royale villain, and returned to the same character 17 years later in Hitman: World of Assassination. In between, he played Cliff Unger in Death Stranding, providing both the voice and the motion capture.
Price against his own people
Most of the trailer digs into the split between Price and the unit he used to lead. After the events of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Price has gone rogue following the assassination of General Shepherd, and he’s now working alongside the Las Almas Cartel. What’s left of Task Force 141 has orders to hunt him down, which means a former brother-in-arms is coming after him as well.
The campaign itself, first announced back in May, is built around a war breaking out between North and South Korea, with Price caught in the middle. His actual goal still isn’t clear. The trailer also gives a bit more screen time to Private Park Hyun Jun, the young South Korean recruit who serves as the game’s second playable character.
So where’s Makarov?
If you followed the previous game, a brand-new villain may raise an eyebrow. Modern Warfare 3 brought back original trilogy antagonist Vladimir Makarov and spent its short campaign on his rise to power, ending with him killing a member of Task Force 141 and slipping away. None of the Modern Warfare 4 trailers so far have mentioned Makarov, and there’s no word on whether Mikkelsen’s character is connected to him in any way.
What this means for you
For now, treat the trailer as a story tease rather than a full reveal: two playable protagonists, a fractured Task Force 141 and a high-profile new face as the threat. The game already has store pages up on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.
Where to go next: we also covered how Treyarch is closing its Black Ops era, and if you want another look at a big-budget blockbuster in the making, there’s our piece on GTA 6. The rest of the week’s news is collected in our gaming articles.
FAQ
That hasn’t been officially announced. He appears at the end of the Tokyo Game Show trailer threatening Captain Price, which strongly suggests he’s the campaign’s primary antagonist.
It centers on a war breaking out between North and South Korea, with Captain Price stuck in the middle after going rogue following General Shepherd’s assassination in Modern Warfare 3.
The trailer confirms two playable characters: Captain John Price and Private Park Hyun Jun, a young South Korean recruit.
There’s no mention of Vladimir Makarov in any Modern Warfare 4 trailer so far, and it’s unclear whether Mikkelsen’s character has any link to him.
Yes. He voiced Le Chiffre in 007: Quantum of Solace and later in Hitman: World of Assassination, and played Cliff Unger in Death Stranding via voice and motion capture.