This Game Franchise Shares A Universe With Hitman

With the release of Hitman 3, players are getting back into the "World of Assassination" and finding creative and humorous ways to cross names off an ever-expanding hitlist. With this being the 3rd and final entry in the newest trilogy, and with IO Interactive shifting gears to focus on a James Bond themed project, the Hitman franchise and Agent 47 may be taking a well deserved break.

The Hitman franchise began back in 2000 with Hitman: Codename 47. Since then, there have been ten games in the series and two major motion pictures, which took their own hits at the box office. 

With such a complex storyline and sprawling landscapes to explore, the Hitman series contains plenty of easter eggs and nods to other properties, both in and out of the video game world. Some specific nods, however, indicate that players have walked in the world of Agent 47 in some other way.

In 2007, with the Hitman franchise several games and one movie in, IO Interactive released Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. The game's story follows death row inmates Adam "Kane" Marcus and James Seth Lynch, who get involved in a prison break and confront a gang that is holding Kane's wife and daughter hostage. The two are anything but buddies, as there is betrayal and mistrust all along the way.

Echoes of the duo's antics can be felt in IO's other main franchise. In Hitman: Blood Money, a post-mission newspaper makes mention of a certain prison break where 2 convicts escape. Also, more directly, Kane and Lynch themselves appear as cameos in Hitman: Absolution at a biker bar and gun range respectively.

While Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and its sequel didn't wow audiences, and even though gamers haven't heard from the series since 2010, there is a precedent set now for a wider IO Interactive universe. In other words, there's always a chance these characters could show up again in IO's next venture.