Microsoft’s Activision is shaking up its long-running “Call of Duty” franchise with a break from tradition and some A-list stars.
At the conclusion of Xbox Games Showcase 2025 on Sunday, “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7” was unveiled as the next planned “CoD” game from Treyarch and Raven Software. With the debut of “Call of Duty: Black Ops 6” just last fall, this marks the first time ever that two “Black Ops” installments have been released back to back in the life cycle of the “Call of Duty” franchise.
Variety has learned that “Black Ops 7,” which is set in 2035, more than four decades after the events of “Black Ops 6,” will star Milo Ventimiglia, Kiernan Shipka and “CoD” alum Michael Rooker as voice and its motion capture actors. Ventimiglia will play David Mason, a protagonist previously introduced in “Black Ops 2,” while Shipka has been cast as Emma Kagan, and Rooker is reprising his “Black Ops 2” role of Mike Harper.
Though the casting news comes amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike against major video game publishers, including Activision, Variety has confirmed “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7” is not a struck title and work on the game has not been impacted by the actors union’s work-stoppage.
Activision marketing chief Tyler Bahl described casting Ventimiglia as David Mason (who will receive a subtle makeover so the character is more to Ventimiglia’s likeness) as the right fit for “an iconic character from the franchise and one of the fan favorites” from “Black Ops 2.”
“And then we brought in Kiernan Shipka, which we’re super excited about and is red hot right now, to play this character called Emma Kagan,” Bahl told Variety. “It’s a new character, and she is a CEO of this organization called The Guild, and we think her performance will really blow people away. And then finally, Michael Rooker, is returning to the franchise reprising his role as Mike Harper from ‘Black Ops 2,’ and I think our fans, you know, will be excited to see him, you know, come back and return to the franchise, you know, because he hasn’t been here in a while.”
Per the game’s description, “In ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 7,’ Treyarch and Raven Software are bringing players the most mind-bending ‘Black Ops’ ever. Developed as the next evolution of ‘Black Ops,’ this is the first-ever consecutive release within the series, set more than 40 years after the events of ‘Black Ops 6.’ The year is 2035 and the world is on the brink of chaos, ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare following the events of ‘Black Ops 2’ and ‘Black Ops 6.’ Wielding cutting-edge technology, David Mason and his team must fight back against a manipulative enemy who weaponizes fear above all else.”
The game is a co-op campaign and, like “Black Ops 6,” will include round-based zombies.
“Call of Duty: Black Ops 7” will be released across Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and on PC via Xbox PC, Battle.net and Steam. The game will be available at launch through Xbox’s Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass subscriptions.
“Usually at this point in time, we would have teased everything that’s coming out. And I think in a lot of ways we’re setting this up more like a Beyonce album dropping; nobody’s going to know about it, or nobody’s going to see it coming,” Bahl told Variety. “The whole goal was to really do something different, and for us to zag and show up in a unique way. And one way of doing that is almost not doing any pre-promotion and giving it to players in a really unexpected way.”
Watch the teaser trailer for “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7” below.
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