One of the most popular characters in the Call of Duty series is Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley. The operator first debuted in 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Since then, he has appeared in most of the Modern Warfare titles and is a playable character in Warzone. Fans have long been intrigued by his iconic skull-patterned balaclava and unique attitude. Ghost’s face was recently revealed when data miners found his character model without the balaclava. Infinity Ward, a studio that shares development duties for the Call of Duty series with Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, has now expressed interest in making a campaign based on Ghost as the character. The studio already had plans for a stand-alone game featuring the Task Force 141 member as the main protagonist. Brian Bloom, head writer for the series, revealed to IGN that the studio has long-dreamed of a Ghost spin-off game. “Yeah, I’m going to say it. Ghost’s origin story,” Bloom revealed said the interview. “There are others who would like to do that too […], and we think that would be really interesting,” Bloom continues. “And again, that’s kind of where this interview started, that there’s something about that character that’s iconic, but the mask and some of those more superficial elements, as we’ve attempted to build them out here in our current release, where did some of those things come from? And exploring that, and looking at that would be something I think the audience would love, and we would love to get into.” Jeffrey Negus, Infinity Ward’s narrative director, was also interested in the idea of a game starring Ghost. “It’s hard for us not to jam on like, ‘Man, wouldn’t that be cool?” Negus adds. Ralph Valve of WhatifGaming has reported that plans for an origin campaign for Ghost have already started. The studio has reportedly approached actor Samuel Roukin about expanding on his role as Simon “Ghost” Riley. According to the same source, a DLC expansion for Modern Warfare II will focus on expanding the campaign’s story and feature more of the established characters, factions, and new blood. The report also adds that Infinity Ward plans to approach the single-player campaign in a similar way to Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures anthological series.
