It looks like my wildly speculative theory that the upcoming reveal of a new Ghost Recon game will actually lead us to a new Splinter Cell is in trouble. The unveiling is set to take place tomorrow, but a leak captured by redditor jrmywl30 has revealed—unofficially—that it will in fact be called spoilers.
No, it won't be called spoilers, but potential spoilers follow, so consider yourself warned.
The leaked image shows the "Wolves Collector's Edition" of Ghost Recon Breakpoint, a direct sequel to Ghost Recon Wildlands. The CE will apparently include a large figurine of someone who wouldn't be out of place in a near-future Assassin's Creed game. But that, according to further leaks, is not where Breakpoint is headed. Instead, the game will reportedly be set on the fictional island of Aurora—too many hassles dealing with real-world locales, maybe—and the chief villain will be none other than Cole D. Walker, the Ghost team leader and Jon Bernthal lookalike who came to Wildlands in the new Operation Oracle expansion.
That's an interesting twist, and not outside the realm of possibility. The teaser for the expansion suggests that Walker is something of a loose cannon, describing him as having "his own agenda" and warning that players "will uncover information [in the expansion] that will redefine loyalty … What you will discover here might very well set the scene for the future." In hindsight, the bit with Walker removing his dog tags and dropping them into an ammo box seems a lot more meaningful, too.
The leak, if accurate, doesn't complete ruin my Splinter Cell theory. It's possible that Walker isn't really bad, he's just more of a "lone wolf" type (and the wolf motif is certainly present in the collector's edition image), and all of this is actually just the in-between step from Ghost to Fourth Echelon—kind of like those superhero crossovers where everyone's a good guy but they have to fight before they figure out that they're all on the same side. But all of this is entirely unconfirmed, obviously, and will remain that way until 11:30 am PT/2:30 pm ET tomorrow.