MachineGames Begins Early Development on ‘Wolfenstein 3’

In Uppsala, actors are auditioning for a role that has yet to be officially announced. On February 26, 2026, MP1st revealed a casting call for a project codenamed Valkyrie, and the team involved is quite notable. Performance Director Tom Keegan recently worked on ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’, while Casting Director Emily Schweber has been part of every ‘Wolfenstein’ game since ‘The New Order’ debuted in 2014. Bethesda has not confirmed any of this information, nor has it needed to.

The casting sheet introduces a new character named Sofiya, a Ukrainian orphan aged between eight and eleven who travels with a dog named Ralph and gradually bonds with series protagonist William “B.J.” Blazkowicz. According to VGC’s report on the leak, performance capture is set to commence in April 2026, with additional sessions extending into 2027. This timeline suggests a serious production schedule rather than mere speculation.

Evidence of MachineGames starting ‘Wolfenstein 3’ dates back even earlier than February. On January 7, 2026, Kotaku reported that ‘Wolfenstein 3’ was already in development at MachineGames, the Swedish studio responsible for 2017’s ‘The New Colossus’ and 2024’s ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’. Windows Central’s Jez Corden also independently flagged the same rumor. While neither outlet provided a release window, both confirmed the game’s existence and its connection to a broader initiative by parent company Bethesda to elevate ‘Wolfenstein’ similarly to how it is currently handling ‘Fallout’.

Various outlets, including EGW, have been tracking the story since the initial January report, documenting each new leak and casting detail as they emerged. The consistency of the information has become increasingly apparent: every new detail aligns with previous ones, which is uncommon for a rumor that has endured seven months of scrutiny.

This isn’t the first instance of studio director Jerk Gustafsson hinting at the completion of the trilogy. In a Noclip documentary released in September 2025, he mentioned that ‘The New Order’ and ‘The New Colossus’ were always intended to be the first two parts of a trilogy, indicating that the team had outlined Blazkowicz’s entire arc during the early development stages at id Software. While he stopped short of confirming a third game, his comments left little room for alternative interpretations. Months later, GamesIndustry.biz reported a similarly direct statement from Gustafsson, who expressed that returning to ‘Wolfenstein’ and concluding the story the studio had envisioned from the beginning had always been their goal. Coming from the studio’s own director, this is nearly an admission without an official press release.

MachineGames has not publicly acknowledged the codename Valkyrie, and the studio has remained silent since the casting details leaked. Fans have already begun making comparisons that the studio likely hoped to avoid at this stage. On a ResetEra thread discussing the MP1st report, one commenter raised concerns about whether a gunplay-focused franchise like ‘Wolfenstein’ could effectively incorporate a ‘Last of Us’-style child companion without disrupting the pacing, a valid concern given the differing approaches of Naughty Dog and MachineGames in their game designs. The specifics of Sofiya’s role in the narrative remain speculative, but her mention in a legitimate casting document, linked to two crew members who have previously collaborated on ‘Indiana Jones’, is significant.

The timing of this development is also noteworthy, as Bethesda’s parent company has observed Amazon successfully transform ‘Fallout’ into one of Prime Video’s major offerings, with a second season already released and a third season greenlit. In July 2025, Variety reported that Amazon was working on a ‘Wolfenstein’ series through Kilter Films, the production company run by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. MachineGames studio director Jerk Gustafsson is involved as an executive producer alongside showrunner Patrick Somerville, known for his work on ‘Station Eleven’. Aligning a new mainline game with a streaming adaptation mirrors the strategy Bethesda employed with ‘Fallout’ around the show’s premiere in 2024.

It appears that ‘Wolfenstein 3′ may not be the only project on MachineGames’ agenda. Notebookcheck reported in January 2026 that the studio is also developing a multiplayer title akin to ‘Rainbow Six Siege’, which will run concurrently with Valkyrie. This would mark a significant shift for a studio that has built its reputation primarily on single-player campaigns, potentially explaining why Bethesda has not rushed to confirm either project until they are further along.

As for when ‘Wolfenstein 3’ might actually be released, performance capture typically takes over a year before a game reaches its final stages. MachineGames has not released a mainline ‘Wolfenstein’ title since ‘The New Colossus’ in 2017, having filled the gap with 2019’s ‘Youngblood’ and its detour into ‘Indiana Jones’. If the April 2026 capture schedule holds and sessions continue into 2027, a release before 2028 seems unlikely. Bethesda will also likely aim for the launch to coincide with the Amazon series, whenever that premieres. Additionally, there’s speculation about the game’s availability beyond PC and Xbox. Given that every mainline ‘Wolfenstein’ entry since 2014 has eventually made its way to Nintendo hardware, a Switch 2 version isn’t out of the question, although there has been no confirmation from Bethesda yet.

For now, the next chapter for B.J. Blazkowicz exists primarily in casting documents, community discussions dissecting the leak, and studio credits that were not meant to be noticed at this stage. Historically, this is often how these games first come to light.