Call of Duty: Warzone's season finale announces the return of Soap
What the hell kind of name is "Soap", eh?
One of Call of Duty: Warzone's less remarked-upon features is that, over six seasons of Modern Warfare content, it continued that game's story in and among the setting of Verdansk. These mini-stories will often introduce an Operator to Warzone, like Ghost (season two) or Captain Price (season four), and the arc unfolds through gathering 'intel' by finding it in specific spots of the map over multiple matches.
The recently integration of Call of Duty: Black Ops-Cold War with Warzone saw the numbers reset, and we're back to season one: but Modern Warfare's story has kept going regardless. This season's intel-gathering exercise leads up to the grand finale of the pursuit of Zakhaev (Modern Warfare's big baddie) and his nuke aimed at Verdansk. Youtuber Geeky Pastimes was one of the first to disarm the missile, after which the game will play this cutscene the next time you select 'Missions' in the menu.
If you don't want to watch the full thing, the clip ends with all six of Modern Warfare's operators looking out over Verdansk from a dam, before this radio exchange:
Soap: Mactavish to actual...
Price: Soap... what's your position?
Soap: Half a click off the coast. Things are really heating up out here.
Price: Hold tight, we're moving your way. [To squad] On me.
Soap is for my money the best character in the original Modern Warfare, and was not part of the remade Modern Warfare. He wasn't in it, though at the very end Price mentions his name among candidates being considered for the new Task Force 141.
The above confirms Soap's coming to Warzone, which is something that various dataminers and leakers have been claiming for months now, Recently in-game footage has emerged, although PCG can't confirm its authenticity.
Shane Sparks is the other new operator being trailed. There's been no-one of that name in COD before, though in the comic Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Ghosts a chap called Kevin Sparks was a member of Delta Force (and Shane has an American accent too).
Fan reaction thus far is... not enamoured of Soap's new look, should the leak indeed be real, with frequent references to the character as Shampoo. The voice actor doesn't sound like Kevin McKidd, either, though at least he's still Scottish. In places like Verdansk, I suppose, you take what you can get.