Milo Ventimiglia looks at a wall of red screens in the very weird trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Activision

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 7 Teaser Looks Like a BLADE RUNNER Hell

Originally posted on Nerdist | By Kyle Anderson | Last updated Jun 9, 2025 4:58 PM ET

Few video game franchises have as much staying power as Call of Duty. The first-person shooter series first dropped a game in 2003 and, 2004 notwithstanding, has released a new entry every year hence. The franchise has several offshoots, like Modern Warfare and Black Ops, that have bent the original conceit to new and often disturbing places. For the latest, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the series is going full weird sci-fi, with robots, holograms, and folding cities. Blade Runner meets Inception meets kinda Stranger Things? Its wild, plus it stars Milo Ventimiglia as David Mason, making this a follow-up to Black Ops II from 2012! Take a look.

Ventimiglia, as you can see, also provides the performance capture for Mason in the game. Also in the cast as voice and face are Kiernan Shipka as Emma Kagan (her whats the hologram) and Michael Rooker, reprising his Black Ops II role of Mike Harper.

Currently, SAG-AFTRA is on strike against several video game publishers, including Call of Dutys Activision. However, according to an article in Variety, “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. No scabs here, so thats good.

As for the game itself, it takes place in 2035, ten years after the events of Black Ops II which took place in 2025. Hey, thats this year! The official synopsis is below:

“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.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will drop on Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and on PC via Xbox PC, Battle.net and Steam. So, everywhere. No release date yet but itll be some time this year.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

This article first appeared on Nerdist and was syndicated with permission.

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