Despite all the attention Warhorse Studios is getting for their confirmed Middle Earth lord of the rings RPG, the biggest news for longtime fans of the studio like myself is that it's continuing Kingdom Come franchise with a brand new entry currently in development. The main thing that's up in the air right now is whether or not this game will continue Henry's story Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, but as much as I'd love for it to happen, I highly doubt it will actually happen. Instead, I believe that Warhorse will continue the franchise with an entry that honors the spirit of those games, but follows a different story and a new protagonist. That said, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 could still use Henry as a lens through which players view the ongoing history of Bohemia, even though his personal story is over.
This is especially true because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn't take place in some vague version of medieval Europe. Like the first play, it is rooted in a very specific political moment in Bohemia. Deep Silver owns a historical breakdown for KCD2 frames Henry's story against the ongoing conflict between King Wenceslas IV. and his half-brother Sigismund of Hungary, with the play's 1403 setting ultimately defined by the enormous political and social upheaval of the time. in other words KCD2 is not just a sequel that expands on Henry's personal journey. Instead, it puts him on the brink of something much bigger, and historically speaking, the next great chapter of Bohemia is hard to miss.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance Dev confirms new entry in Lord of the Rings franchise and RPG
Warhorse Studios confirms rumors of a new title, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, along with a new game set in the Lord of the Rings universe.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 leaves the Czech Republic with a bigger story ahead
original Kingdom Come: Deliverance it was already built around a country facing a crisis. Henry's house is destroyed and his parents murdered when the political conflict between Wenceslaus and Sigismund comes into focus and gives Henry's life a completely different context from there. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 it naturally pushes this conflict further, bringing Henry closer and closer to powerful figures and an overarching political tension that is more important than his own life.
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If Warhorse is going to keep moving forward with a real bohemian history, then the logical next step isn't another revenge story like Henry's or some local feud to settle. After years KCD2The settlement until 1403 eventually led to the execution of Jan Hus in 1415, the first defenestration of Prague in 1419, the death of Wenceslas that same year and the Hussite Wars that followed. After Wenceslaus's death in 1419, Sigismund inherited the Bohemian crown, but the wars waged against the Hussites in the 1420s stood in the way of this claim becoming simple or undisputed.
If the decision should proceed with Kingdom Come: Deliverance as a series, rather than moving into a franchise and focusing on a different place or period in history, there would be a major shift in its narrative. Henry's story v KCD it was always personal, but it also always existed in Czech history. The more Warhorse follows this history forward, the more challenging it becomes to avoid the events that would ultimately change Bohemia in a fundamental way.
Jan Žižka could be the cleanest bridge to KCD3
But if any historical figure makes it possible, then it is one of my personal favorite figures, Jan Žižka. The fact that it is in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 already gives Warhorse a natural bridge between Henry's current story and the upcoming Bohemia revolution. IN KCD2Jan Žižka exists even before he becomes the legendary commander that history remembers, which actually makes him the kind of figure that Warhorse can use particularly well. The studio doesn't have to feature him at the height of his fame and instead can show the man before he becomes a myth.
Historically, it is almost impossible to separate Žižka from the Hussite Wars. In fact, history books describe him as a Czech military commander who led the victorious Hussite forces against Sigismund and helped predict later military tactics with the help of mobile artillery. It is also worth noting that the Hussite uprising began in 1419 after the defenestration of Prague, when Hus's followers resisted the crusades sent against them.
For Kingdom Comethis would mean that Žizka could act as a sort of historical gateway through which Warhorse could connect the same personal, relatively intimate narrative of Henry's journey with the much larger conflict still taking place in the same world. KCD3 he would not need to make Henry the center of the Hussite wars for this direction to make sense. It would be enough to place it close enough to the people and the choices that history was already moving towards.
And that might actually be the better approach. The reason Henry works so well as a protagonist Kingdom Come: Deliverance it is because he is a mere participant in history rather than the sole person responsible for changing everything. If KCD3 approaches Prague, Hus, Žižek, Zikmund and the beginnings of the Hussite movement, Jindřich could still be the lens through which the players experience the surrounding crisis. He would still be a man defined by his own loyalties and personal losses, but the world around him would be less willing to stay small.
The Hussite Wars would be Kingdom Come's biggest change yet
The Hussite Wars would be a major escalation for Kingdom Comebut it wouldn't necessarily be a betrayal of what games have always been. If anything, it would be a natural outgrowth of the historical groundwork Warhorse had already laid. The series began with the consequences of a noble conflict affecting the common people. A Hussite-era game could take this idea even further by showing what happens when political unrest, religious beliefs, social pressure and military violence start to feed on each other.
That would work too KCD3 a slightly different tone and it would certainly change the atmosphere. The first two Kingdom Come: Deliverance the games are already violent and politically charged, but they're still largely about survival in a world that hasn't yet fallen apart. However, a game set closer to the Hussite Wars could feel more unstable from the start. Basically, everything and everyone would matter more than they ever have, and that would also put faith front and center even more than it was in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
But it would also give the next game an excuse to change in a big way, as well Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 did after his predecessor. The Hussite era is also handing Warhorse this expansion on a silver platter because KCD3 it wouldn't be bigger just to be bigger – it would actually be bigger because history is bigger. The conflict that was behind the life of Jindřich of Skalitz has a future, and this future leads to one of the most dramatic chapters in Czech history.
The direction of KCD3 may have already gone down in history
Of course, none of this means that Warhorse has confirmed the plot of the next one Kingdom Come game. In fact, he currently calls it “the new Kingdom Come adventure” rather than connecting “DeliveranceAccording to the title, the game could have a different hero, a different region, or even a different moment in medieval history. However, if the next game continues from KCD2the most obvious direction is already there. The pieces are honestly too interconnected to ignore.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 leaves Henry in a world where the conflict between Václav and Zikmund is far from an isolated political dispute. The presence of Jan Žižka points to a future that history already remembers. The death of Jan Hus, the Prague riots, the death of Wenceslaus, Sigismund's claim and the Hussite Wars all sit in the same timeline. And for a series that has always treated history as the driver of its story, any of these events is a potential future for it.
But that's also why it's so exciting. Warhorse doesn't have to come up with an obvious next move out of nowhere, as it can simply follow the path it's already on. If Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 Moving towards the Hussite Wars, it could give the series its most ambitious story yet, while staying true to the entrenched historical identity that made it stand out in the first place.
- Released
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February 4, 2025
- ESRB
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Adults 17+ / Use of alcohol, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, intense violence, partial nudity
- Developers
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Warhorse Studios
