Hitman “Needs a Break,” But IO Interactive Has “Some Pretty Cool Ideas” About the Series’ Future

IO Interactive wrapped up the Hitman series’ World of Assassination trilogy with Hitman 3 earlier this year, and provided a resolution for the series’ primary ongoing narrative arc. But this is, of course, a major franchise, and one that IO Interactive has always been associated with. Given that, what does the future hold for Hitman, especially with IO Interactive – who’ve expanded to open up a third studio – also working on other projects- one of which is Project 007?

Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak said that after the conclusion of the World of Assassination trilogy, Hitman is taking “a bit of a breather”- but that doesn’t mean the series is over yet. According to Abrak, IOI has some ideas about what it wants to do with Hitman going forward, and he teases that they’re a little different from what you might expect them to be.

“After the [Hitman] trilogy, it’s safe to say that Agent 47 needs a bit of a breather,” Abrak said. “He needs a break. But that doesn’t mean things aren’t happening in the World of Assassination. We have some pretty cool ideas that we’re looking into, and some of those will bear fruit. You’ll see some development there that’s a bit different.”

With Project 007 and a third as-of-yet unannounced project currently in the works, it’s likely that Hitman is going to be on the backburner for a while- but it should be interesting to see what shape it takes when it does come back. In the meantime, there’s still plenty of Hitman 3 content coming up, so series fans aren’t going to be starved in the near future.