Of course Hitman 4’s coming, say devs IO, as they lay groundwork for a Diana Burnwood/Eminem buddy cop flick

In case you missed it, Hitman’s latest celebrity elusive target mission is all about Eminem. The rapper has Agent 47 take down his blonde alter-ego Slim Shady, it’s all very meta and a tad less appealing to me than the cameos previously made by the likes of Bruce Lee and Mads Mikkelsen as Bond villain Le Chiffre.

That said, a new interview some IO Interactive folks have given to Variety, in which boss Hakan Abrak makes clear there will be a new Hitman coming once the studio have gotten some stuff off their plate, has caught my attention by contrasting Mr Nem with murderbald handler Diana.

First, let’s get the next Hitman stuff out of the way. “So of course there will be more Hitman,” Abrak said when asked if there’ll be more hitmen now Hitman 3’s morphed in catch-all basket World of Assassination. “But right now, I think we need to get to the other side of this year and next year you’ll get more news about Hitman co-op, because I think co-op is a really, really good extension to the universe, and will introduce very interesting mechanics and combinations in World of Assassination. But we will, after that, be talking about the next Hitman — because, of course, there’s going to be a next Hitman.”

IO, of course, also have Bond game 007 First Light to put out soon, with a new fantasy game unimaginatively codenamed Project Fantasy also mentioned here as being in the wings. As for what this next Hitman might look like, lead level designer Jacob Mikkelsen simply said he doesn’t regret any of the paths the series has gone down to this point, citing Hitman: Absolution as the most out-there entry, but still as a game that taught the studio valuable lessons.

Speaking of valuable lessons, here’s the bit in the interview which makes me regret not having immediately been down to give Agent 47’s Eminem mission a go the moment I saw it was a thing. The rapper acts as a handler helping guide barcode man to Shady, and I’d not thought about how that’d allow the devs to play him off of the most Eminem-coded character in Hitman canon. “There’s some interchanges between Eminem and [usual 47 bossperson] Diana [Burnwood] that are really fun,” according to writer Jen Simpkins. “Because, as you know, Diana is a very different character to Eminem. And it’s a very surreal level where there’s a lot of reality blending and mixing into one.”

Personally, I can see the pair really getting along. Diana seems like she’d appreciate the sort of dedication and practice which goes into nailing that one really fast verse in Rap God, while Eminem seems like the kind of guy to understand the sort of care and adroitness it takes to navigate shadowy multinational murder conspiracies while you’ve got a very narrow margin for error. After all, he is master of all that’s shady and slim.

Those two should helm Hitman 4 if 47 opts to hang up his piano wire in the interim. The Eminem mission is available in World of Assassination until December 31st, so if you fancy trying it, you’ve got plenty of time.