Wolfenstein 3 Is Officially Happening, and BJ Blazkowicz Is Coming Back to Finish the Job

Wolfenstein 3 is real. Xbox boss Asha Sharma confirmed on X that the third mainline game is “officially in production” at MachineGames, and the Swedish studio backed it up with a photo of its motion-capture stage.

That photo matters, because it shows BJ Blazkowicz and Grace Walker are coming back. Nine years after The New Colossus, the story that ended on a cliffhanger finally gets its finale.

What’s actually been confirmed

• The game: Wolfenstein 3, in production at MachineGames, the studio behind The New Order, The New Colossus and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
• The tease: Sharma posted a page of the script, and MachineGames added the line “His reputation precedes him.”
• The cast: Brian Bloom returns as BJ Blazkowicz and Debra Wilson as Grace Walker, Bethesda says.
• When we heard: the news landed on Friday afternoon NZ time, as part of Xbox’s 25th anniversary week.
• What we don’t know: no release date, no platforms, no price and no trailer. MachineGames says it will share more “as soon as they’re ready”.

A trilogy nine years in the making

MachineGames shelved BJ’s story after Wolfenstein II in 2017, then made the co-op spinoff Youngblood and the very good Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. According to IGN, studio head Jerk Gustafsson told Noclip last year that the team had “always seen” BJ’s story as a trilogy.

IGN also points out that Amazon is turning Wolfenstein into a TV series. So BJ is about to be busy.

Part of a big week for Bethesda

Wolfenstein 3 landed in the same Bethesda anniversary post that confirmed id Software’s next game and Doom: The Dark Ages’ free Slaughter Mode on 16 November (US time). We covered the id news and the rest of Microsoft’s party in our Xbox 25 roundup.

It also comes ten days after Bethesda finally named The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. If you want to catch up on BJ first, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is 54.95 NZ dollars on Steam in New Zealand.

Our take

Bloody finally. The New Colossus left BJ mid-revolution with the whole of Nazi America still standing, and we’ve been stuck on that cliffhanger since 2017.

MachineGames is one of the few Microsoft studios with a near-perfect run, so this is the safest bet in Xbox’s whole lineup. Just don’t expect it any time soon, because a script page and a mocap photo means years, not months.

And it’s a bit rich for Xbox to parade id and MachineGames in the same week it’s still dealing with the fallout of gutting id Software. Keep the studio that makes this stuff intact, eh?

Follow it all on our Wolfenstein 3 page. Want BJ back or done with Nazi-punching? Argue about it in the GetRekt Discord.

Sources

• Bethesda: Bethesda celebrates Xbox 25 with id Software and MachineGames news
• IGN: Wolfenstein 3 confirmed to be in development at MachineGames
• The Verge: Xbox announces Wolfenstein 3
• The Verge: The Elder Scrolls VI officially has a name: Sentinel
• Steam: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus