The original template for the ever-present villain that acts as the player's overarching goal that is now the standard in Ubisoft's Far Cry series was The Jackal from Far Cry 2. An arms dealer, a smuggler, and a conniving opportunist, The Jackal is remembered fondly by fans and gave way to other series icons with the likes of Vaas, Pagan Ming, Joseph Seed, and the upcoming Antón Castillo, played by Giancarlo Esposito in Far Cry 6, following in his footsteps. Now, after years of fan theories and speculation, the director of the 2008 open-world FPS has confirmed a long-standing fan theory about the Jackal's connection to the protagonist of the original Far Cry.

In an interview with IGN, the creative director of Far Cry 2, Clint Hocking, confirmed that the Jackal is actually Jack Carver, the protagonist of the first game as well as its spinoff, Far Cry Instincts. “The Jackal is actually supposed to be Jack Carver from the original Far Cry,” said Hocking. He continued:

"Jack Carver in the original Far Cry was this shifty, smuggler, gun runner kind of crook... The idea was [the Jackal] is just him, 10 years later or something, after he's seen whatever he saw on this island [during the original Far Cry]. Maybe it was drug induced, maybe it's post-traumatic stress disorder, or maybe it's real. But the idea is, a decade later, he has levelled up his smuggling game, and he's gotten embroiled in this conflict.”

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Image via Ubisoft

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This connection between The Jackal and Carver is something that fans have been theorizing for many years, with two pieces of evidence acting as the theory's foundation. The first was the similar backgrounds of both Carver and The Jackal. Both characters were previously in the U.S. Navy and ran an illegal gunning running operation, with a bit more of a stretch being that the box Jack receives at the end of Far Cry Instincts is full of diamonds, which is a central part of the Far Cry 2 story. The much more damning piece of evidence to link the characters is found in the files of the game where textures related to The Jackal's character are labeled with the name "jackcarver." However, the events in the game don't do much to connect the two together, leaving it as a detail that only the developers and data miners were able to piece together before Hocking's interview. This is the first time that the creators of the game have openly said that the connection between the character is real, thus confirming this decade-long fan theory.

While The Jackal is still fondly remembered and ushered in the villain archetype that the series still uses, he will not be included in the Far Cry 6 Villains DLC, a roguelike that allows players to take control of the antagonists of the three previous games. Far Cry 6 will be released on October 7. To hear more about the creation of the villains of Far Cry, you can check out IGN's Inside Stories documentary, How Far Cry's Iconic Villains Were Created, below.

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