Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Video game fandom
Name	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Related articles on Fanlore.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is a first person shooter game in the Call of Duty franchise released in 2022 and a reboot game of the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The single-player campaign follows playable characters Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, John "Soap" MacTavish, Simon "Ghost" Riley, Alejandro Vargas, and Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra as they work with Captain John Price, Kate Laswell, and the PMC Shadow Company to find and neutralize missing U.S. missiles that have fallen into the hands of an Iranian by the name of Hassan Zyani.

This game gained a boost in popularity in 2023, which is largely attributed to the growth of fan edits on TikTok of many 'operators' featured in the 2022 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. The operator as a concept in Call of Duty (COD) can either be a playable protagonist in the campaigns, or a playable 'skin' character for the battle royal option within each game. While some characters have flushed out back stories and character traits, many simply have a line or two about their character in the description box next to their skin. These surface-level characters facilitate fandom content by encouraging further creative development. Combined with the physical attributes of large and often masked, operators such as Simon "Ghost" Riley and König have become very popular in fandom spaces.

Influencer and comedian Brittany Broski has been vocal about her love for operators Ghost and König, working to popularize them further.

Fandom

Shipping

The most popular ship is SoapGhost (Simon "Ghost" Riley/John "Soap" MacTavish) with 7,122 Works on Ao3 in September 2023. Most other shipping is done with "Y/N" or a self-insert original character, either with Ghost, Soap, or an operator named König.

AI

An interesting aspect of the reboot Modern Warfare fandom is it arose during the AI boom in 2023. AI bots are used to create content surrounding the characters and then either enjoyed individually or posted on fandom platforms such as TikTok either as is, or performed by voice actors or cosplayers. This creates an interested question about fan creations, and the limits of its definition.

Not consuming Canon

As of February 2024, on Ao3 there are roughly ~24000 works in the fandom tag [ Call of Duty (Video Game)], but just over a thousand works tagged Author has Never Played Call of Duty. This might be due to the virality of pairings like SoapGhost on Twitter or other platforms.

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

• Pattern Breaker- COD:MWII - A canon-compliant rework and extension of COD MW2: Reboot, with themes of overcoming trauma by mothbeast on Ao3.
• all that's said in the low light - COD:MWII - An investigation of the traumas of post-military disability, the difficulties of embracing normalcy, and the love that can survive it all by headlocket on Ao3.