Borderlands 3 Does Bring Handsome Jack Back, But Not How You Think

Let it be known that there are spoilers for Borderlands 2 ahead. One of the most prominent villains in gaming history is Handsome Jack from the Borderlands series. His puzzlingly charming ways captured fans' hearts when he made his triumphant debut in Borderlands 2, and then gave it another go in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. After that, he appeared as a hologram in Tales from the Borderlands because, spoiler alert, he's dead. That's right, Uncle Jack bit the dust in Borderlands 2, but that hasn't stopped him from hanging around in one form or another. As far as Borderlands 3 goes, he will be returning, but not exactly how fans might expect.

Speaking with GameSpot, narrative managing producer Randy Varnell discussed how Jack weaseled his way back into the series for the upcoming installment. "Handsome Jack is dead," Varnell said. "He's such a big character in our universe though. There's always going to be some stuff--there may be a side mission or something and then we mention him a few times. It's so hard to get away from that impact. But you're not ever going to see Handsome Jack come back as a character."

Varnell went on to say how it was difficult to leave Handsome Jack behind. Well, for the most part. "But it was a hard decision," he said. "Because he's such a great villain. But when we were looking at coming up with new villains for Borderlands 3... we've got a lot of Jack--if you like Handsome Jack, you're in luck because there's a lot of existing content where you can play and enjoy him. He's too important to the universe to never mention him again. But we wanted to be sure that the Calypso twins, the new villains, can stand on their own."

Fans are sure to understand that the devs would want the focus to be on Troy and Tyreen, as Handsome Jack's presence in any form more than being mentioned likely would have distracted some players. Sorry, folks... he's gone, but not forgotten.

Borderlands 3 is set to arrive on September 13th for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. For more on the upcoming title, including our thoughts from when we went hands-on with it, check out some of our previous coverage.

What do you think about this? Did you ever think that Handsome Jack would make another appearance in a Borderlands game after his death? Sound off in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!

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