I have researched the Hitman franchise to an obsessive amount and I’m still learning more by the day. But there is one thing I could never figure out. The identity of Mister X or the Mystery Man.
He first appeared in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin helping Sergei Zavorotko rummage through his dead brother’s things only to find confirmation of the Ort-Meyer project. Through Mr X’s unknown connections they locate the asylum only to find the remnants of the massacre that was left after the events of Codename: 47. They find surveillance footage proving the existence of 47 and Sergei plans on forcing him out of retirement to use his services for personal gain. After succeeding in his plan, Mr X betrays Sergei and blames 47 which leads to Sergei’s eventual death.
His last confirmed appearance was in Hitman: Sniper Challenge as an Easter egg in one of the windows only after completing all challenges.
There are many theories on the identity of the Mystery Man and I hope to at least disprove the majority of them. The currenty plausible suspects are Daniel Morris, Arthur Edwards, Erich Soders, Janus, and even Alexander Cayne (before his paralyzing injury).
It can’t be Alexander Cayne because the assassin attempt that left him paralyzed from the waist down is what started his fascination on assassins. Additionally, he started investigating 47 in 2004, two to four years after Mr X. It can’t be either Constants because Janus’s hair had already turned white around the 70s and he also had a strong accent. Author Edwards was confirmed by a writer for IOI to be a different person from Mr X. It can’t be Soders since he was a Providence operative latest of 1999 and would’ve had the resources to locate 47 without the help of a Russian terrorist.
The best possible suspect is Daniel Morris. They both wore a black suit with a blue tie. They were both Caucasian with black hair. They were both apart of a secret organization. They both had files based around the name Mr X. But I still don’t think it’s him. 1: Daniel didn’t have his briefcase or X themed ring. 2: They both served different roles in their organizations. 3: Other than their appearances and file names, the games never hinted at them being the same person. 4: This could’ve just been an easter egg but the Mystery Man later appeared alive and well in Hitman: Sniper Challenge years after the White House Attack.
I believe the two were originally planned to be the same person, but the idea was later scraped and the identity of the Mystery Man and his employer are still left entirely unknown.
What do you guys think? Anyone have a better theory?
I think it’s a huge miss for IO that they didn’t make some reference to Mystery Man being Edwards in WOA. It would have made perfect sense, someone working in the shadows, part of some shadow organisation - pulling the strings on Sergei, ICA and 47. I never saw this confirmation that it was a different person, do you have a source for that?
And his appearance in Sniper Challenge does suggest to me that the writers knew of him when making WOA. But they probably wanted more of a clean slate, so that people could start fresh with the new trilogy. In my headcanon, I still kind of think it’s the same guy.
The Mystery Man can’t be the Constant. The Constants speech pattern is formal, slow, unexcited, and each word is a deliberate choice. Mr X speaks more causally. He will say things such as “ha. I knew I could break into this pissant system!!” and “yea right smack dab in the middle of Punjab.”
and now I can’t unhear the constant saying “right smack dab in the middle of Punjab” in his tone and cadence. It’s like the Morgan Freeman titty sprinkles thing
Probably would be a Providence Member if stick him with WOA storyline. Make sense to me because probably Providence would want to check things inside the asylum after their investment was down the drain because of 47
I think they won’t want to dive into this guy since Providence’s story arc ended. Best is that they will try create some new scenes of him in H2SA Remastered or even a bonus mission. But that will hardly happen
Nick Price, one of the writers of Hitman, responded to a question from a fan on some social media site I forgot the name of on Feb 1, 2021 asking if they were the same person. The person asked if he was the Constant or a Providence Herald and he simply said no. Don’t know if he was referring to Mr X not being the Constant or apart Providence as a whole.
From my understanding, the Mystery Man was written to be a generic mysterious character who served as a plot device, without the intention of actually elaborating on him. He’s Half-Life’s G-Man.
I know that in Blood Money, the writers played with the idea of Alexander Cayne being revealed as the Mystery Man, and Daniel Morris has the Mr. X file name. Both Caucasians with American accents, but the idea wasn’t used.
This was when a shadowy organization (Alpha Zerox) was revealed.
Oddly, Mystery Man’s voice actor was used to narrate the tutorial in the first level.
My theory is they made a mysterious man-in-a-suit character to move the plot but didn’t think too carefully about it.
WoA also has a shadowy organization (Providence) and a mysterious man-in-a-suit character (Edwards). Why the writers didn’t put these two characters and organizations together, I’ll never understand. Maybe they wanted a fresh start for WoA, withiout being constrained by previous lore like the Five Fathers. My head canon has always been that Alpha Zerox is the American wing of Providence (or a local name for it), and the Mystery Man is the Constant.
I always thought this was a different character! The way he flinches when Sergei gets mad and destroys the laptop, like he was a hacker he’d hired. Maybe you’re right though, they do same similar voices (just difference vocabularies in that scene )
And regarding Edwards’ distinctive way of speaking, that would be an artistic decision made during the development of Hitman 2016.
Now, if the Mystery Man is voiced by Philip Rosch in the new Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, that would make my whole year
Maybe it is a different guy. I’d have to go back and see if you can see him and if he’s wearing the same clothes as MrX since back then in video games characters never (or rarely) changed clothing (oh wait that’s still more or less the same which is WILD). I always thought same voice actor so same guy.
Yes the change of clothing in that era is 100% the only reason I thought it was someone else but also you can see him from the front (whereas Mr. X was shrouded in shadow) and his face and hair are different
Bit of added trivia: the Mystery Man’s voice actor is Jeremy C. Petreman, whose only voice work is in this game and the tutorial narrator for Blood Money.
His main work is as an artist (characters and level design) for IOI IPs such as Hitman Contracts, Freedom Fighters, and Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. And on a 2016 game called Inside. I’m guessing this was another old video game trick of using the dude from accounting to the voices because the company was small and looking to keep costs down (and voice actors weren’t as abundant as they are now)
I’ve always assumed Valliant arrived after Mystery Man and Sergei went to the asylum and took the Ort-Meyer files, since Valliant’s clones weren’t like Ort-Meyer’s. No recombinant DNA, no enhancements, just pure genetic duplication. Sure, Dr. Hei found some other way through a technique of her own to mass-produce them and speed up their growth and development, as well as inherent Valliant’s memories of how to fight and kill, and sure they were put through a rigorous training regiment to make them at peak combat effectiveness. But I always assumed Valliant just found Ort-Meyer’s equipment and his basic notes, not the blueprints on how to make an actual super soldier like 47 and his “brothers.” So Mystery Man is a separate guy from Valliant.
Oh absolutely I believe they’re separate entirely, but the phone call Max makes (when he is isolated in his office) seems to imply he has made deals for the clones with others beyond the ICA, and as far as I know that hasn’t been elaborated on yet unless I missed it. Obviously 47 prevents these deals from taking place, though.
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