For all the attention Warhorse Studios is getting because of its confirmed Middle-earth Lord of the Rings RPG, the biggest news for longtime fans of the studio like myself is that it is continuing the Kingdom Come franchise with a brand-new entry currently in development. The main thing up in the air right now is whether that game will continue Henry's story from the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, but while I would love for that to happen, my doubts are high that it actually will. Instead, I believe Warhorse will continue the franchise with an entry that honors the spirit of those games but follows a different narrative and, in turn, a new protagonist. That said, a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 could still use Henry as a lens through which players view the ongoing history of Bohemia, even if his personal story has concluded.
That's especially true because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 isn't set in some vague version of medieval Europe. Like the first game, it's rooted in a very specific political moment in Bohemia. Deep Silver's own historical breakdown for KCD2 frames Henry's story against the ongoing conflict between King Wenceslaus IV and his half-brother, Sigismund of Hungary, with the game's 1403 setting ultimately defined by the immense political and social upheaval of the time. In other words, KCD2 isn't just a sequel that expands Henry's personal journey. Instead, it places him on the edge of something much larger, and historically speaking, Bohemia's next major chapter is hard to miss.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance Dev Confirms New Franchise Entry and Lord of the Rings RPG
Warhorse Studios confirms rumors of a new Kingdom Come: Deliverance title along with a new game in the Lord of the Rings universe.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Leaves Bohemia With a Bigger Story Ahead
The original Kingdom Come: Deliverance was already built around a country facing crisis. Henry's home is destroyed and his parents murdered when the political conflict between Wenceslaus and Sigismund comes into focus and gives Henry's life, from there, an entirely different context. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 naturally takes that conflict further, putting Henry increasingly close to powerful figures and an overarching political tension that comes to matter more than his own life.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Now, if Warhorse keeps moving forward through real Bohemian history, then the logical next step isn't another revenge story like Henry's or some local feud that needs to be resolved. The years after KCD2's 1403 setting eventually lead to Jan Hus' execution in 1415, the First Defenestration of Prague in 1419, Wenceslaus' death that same year, and the Hussite Wars that followed. After Wenceslaus died in 1419, Sigismund inherited the Bohemian crown, but the wars fought against the Hussites during the 1420s stood in the way of that claim becoming simple or uncontested.
If the decision were to continue with Kingdom Come: Deliverance as a series rather than shifting into franchise gear and focusing on a different location or period in history, there would be a major shift in its storytelling. Henry's story in KCD has always been a personal one, but it has also always existed inside Bohemian history. The more Warhorse follows that history forward, the more challenging it becomes to avoid the events that would eventually change Bohemia in some big ways.
Jan Zizka Could Be the Clearest Bridge to KCD3
If there is one historical figure who makes that possible, though, it's one of my personal favorite characters, Jan Zizka. The fact that he is in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 already gives Warhorse a natural bridge between Henry's current story and Bohemia's impending revolution. In KCD2, Jan Zizka exists before he becomes the legendary commander that history remembers, which actually makes him the kind of figure Warhorse can use especially well. The studio doesn't have to introduce him at the height of his fame and can instead show the man before he becomes the myth.
Historically, Zizka is almost impossible to separate from the Hussite Wars. In fact, history books describe him as the Bohemian military commander who led victorious Hussite armies against Sigismund and helped anticipate later military tactics through his use of mobile artillery. It's also worth noting that the Hussite rebellion began in 1419 after the Defenestration of Prague, with Hus' followers resisting the crusades sent against them.
For Kingdom Come, that would mean Zizka could function as a historical doorway of sorts through which Warhorse could connect the same personal, relatively intimate storytelling of Henry's journey with a much larger conflict that still takes place in the same world. KCD3 wouldn't need to turn Henry into the center of the Hussite Wars for that direction to make sense. It would only need to place him close enough to the people and choices that history was already moving toward.
And actually, that might even be the better approach. The reason Henry works so well as the protagonist in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is because he's more of an ordinary participant in history rather than the single person responsible for changing everything. If KCD3 moves closer to Prague, Hus, Zizka, Sigismund, and the beginnings of the Hussite movement, Henry could still be the lens through which players experience the surrounding crisis. He would still be a man defined by his own loyalties and personal losses, but the world around him would be less willing to stay small.
The Hussite Wars Would Be Kingdom Come's Biggest Shift Yet
The Hussite wars would be a major escalation for Kingdom Come, but it wouldn't necessarily be a betrayal of what the games have always been. If anything, it would be the natural result of the historical foundation Warhorse has already laid. The series began with the consequences of noble conflict reaching ordinary people. A Hussite-era game could take that idea even further by showing what happens when political unrest, religious conviction, social pressure, and military violence all begin feeding into one another.
That would also give KCD3 a bit of a different tone, and it would certainly change the atmosphere. The first two Kingdom Come: Deliverance games are already violent and politically tense, but they are still largely about survival inside a world that hasn't yet broken apart. However, a game set closer to the Hussite Wars could feel more unstable from the get-go. Pretty much everything and everyone would matter more than they ever have, and that would simultaneously put faith front and center, even more than it was in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
But that would also give the next game an excuse to change in a big way, just as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 did after its predecessor. The Hussite era all but hands Warhorse that expansion on a silver platter because KCD3 wouldn't be bigger just for the sake of being bigger—it would actually be bigger because history gets bigger. The conflict that has been sitting behind Henry of Skalitz's life has a future, and that future leads to one of the most dramatic chapters in Bohemian history.
KCD3's Direction May Already Be Written Into History
Of course, none of this means that Warhorse has confirmed the plot of the next Kingdom Come game. In fact, with it currently calling it a "new Kingdom Come adventure" rather than attaching "Deliverance" to the title, the game could have a different protagonist, a different region, or even a different moment in medieval history. Still, if the next game continues forward from KCD2, the most obvious direction is already there. The pieces are frankly too connected to just ignore.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 leaves Henry in a world where the conflict between Wenceslaus and Sigismund is far from some isolated political dispute. Jan Zizka's presence points toward a future that history already remembers. Jan Hus' death, Prague's unrest, Wenceslaus' passing, Sigismund's claim, and the Hussite Wars all sit ahead on the same timeline. And for a series that has always treated history as the driver behind the story, any of those events are potential futures for it.
But that's also why it’s so exciting. Warhorse doesn’t have to invent an obvious next step out of nothing, as it could simply follow the road it’s already on. If Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 does move toward the Hussite Wars, it could give the series its most ambitious story yet while staying faithful to the grounded historical identity that made it stand out in the first place.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89/100 Critics Rec: 95%
- Released
- February 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
- Warhorse Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Deep Silver
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Action-Adventure, Open-World
