Call of Duty fans convinced Verdansk wasn’t really nuked
When it comes to iconic moments in the Call of Duty franchise, there are a few that stick out. Soap's Modern Warfare 3 (2011) death, "No Russian," and General Shepherd's revenge are all icons in their own right, but when it comes to the beloved Warzone battle royale, they're nothing on the nuking of Verdansk.
Long before the Vodianoy crashed off the shores of Verdansk and zombies invaded the realm, leakers had teased the OG Warzone's map destruction under a hail of nuclear warheads. Although it was simply used to transition into the Verdansk '84 map, there was a lot more lore.
Call of Duty fans don't think Verdansk was nuked
The destruction of Verdansk still sticks with us, and while it's arriving in Warzone Mobile, the original map is yet to make its full return to the mainline game. Now, some sceptics think the upcoming Modern Warfare 3 could reverse the locale's fate - claiming Verdansk was never nuked at all.
With Warzone and the annual CoD release trying to bridge the gap, there are questions about how the pair will unite in Modern Warfare 3. The theories surrounding Verdank's nuking were raised on Reddit, with u/Known-Instruction721 asking whether it was really blown into oblivion.
As well as noting bits of Verdansk appeared in Modern Warfare 3's Gamescom footage, others pointed to the MW2 bio of the Roze Operator, which says she abandoned Shadow Company after the nukes dropped and an "unknown threat" took over the island. Could this be the Konni forces we saw in the Gamescom peek?
Importantly, the Operation 627 mission that gave us a first look at MW3's campaign takes place in the Kastovian Sea, which is exactly where Verdansk is supposed to be. The OP says that there appears to be signs of construction, and with the mission taking place two years after Verdansk's nuking, it could be a rebuild job.
Supporting the wild Verdansk theories, someone wrote, "Hiroshima is a prime real-life example of how a city recovered from an atomic bombing in miraculously short time." One critic mused, "I'm almost certain that nuke wasn’t canon to the MW timeline.
"The new series has deliberately tried being more grounded and realistic than the original trilogy, and a nuke destroying a city to stop a zombie outbreak doesn't fit." Let's also remember there was no mention of the incident in MW2, so why would it return for MW3?
Call of Duty canon is a mess
Click to enlargeIt's fair to say that the outlandish tales of futuristic warfare and Nazi zombies have screwed with the CoD canon a fair bit. That's before we get to Modern Warfare remakes and reboots confusing us further. Even if Verdansk wasn't fully destroyed, this doesn't explain how zombies would fit into it.
Someone concluded, "I will not believe it’s canon until I hear Captain Price say 'after the zombies invaded when that vote ship teleported onto the shore.'" More likely, the MW3 campaign wants you to forget about the whole zombies bit but still wants to keep Verdansk connected to the story.
Whatever is going on with Verdansk, nukes, and zombies, it's a bit of a mess as we head into MW3's campaign. Why couldn't we just have kept Warzone as a battle royale game that made money off funny-looking skins?
