Despite all the attention Warhorse Studios is getting because of its confirmed Midgard The Lord of the Rings RPG, the biggest news for longtime fans of the studio like myself is that it's continuing Kingdom Come franchise with a brand new entry in development. The main thing up in the air right now is whether that game will continue Henry's story from Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, but while I would love for it to happen, I highly doubt it will actually happen. Instead, I think Warhorse will continue the franchise with an entry that honors the spirit of those games but follows a different story and, in turn, a new protagonist. As said, a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 could still use Henry as a lens through which the players view Bohemia's ongoing history, even though his personal history has been concluded.
That is especially true because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is not set in some vague version of medieval Europe. Like the first game, it is 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 enormous political and social upheaval of the time. In other words, KCD2 is not just a sequel that expands on Henry's personal journey. Instead, it places him on the edge of something much bigger, and historically, Bohemia's next big 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 alongside 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 a crisis. Henry's home is destroyed and his parents murdered as the political conflict between Wenceslaus and Sigismund comes into focus and gives Henry's life, from there, a completely different context. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Of course, that conflict takes it further, bringing Henry ever closer to powerful figures and an overarching political tension that matters more than his own life.
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Now, if Warhorse continues to move forward through the true bohemian story, 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 KCD2The setting in 1403 eventually led to the execution of Jan Hus in 1415, the first defense of Prague in 1419, the death of Vaclav the same year, and the Hussite Wars that followed. After Wenceslaus died in 1419, Sigismund inherited the Bohemian crown, but the wars against the Hussites in 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 switching to franchise gear and focusing on a different location or period in history, there would be a major shift in its storytelling. Henry's story i KCD has always been a personal one, but it has also always existed in Bohemian history. The more Warhorse follows the story forward, the more challenging it becomes to avoid the events that would eventually change Bohemia in some big ways.
Jan Zizka may be the clearest bridge to KCD3
But if there is one historical person who makes it possible, it is one of my personal favorite characters, Jan Zizka. The fact that he's in it Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 already gives Warhorse a natural bridge between Henry's current story and Bohemia's impending revolution. IN KCD2Jan Zizka exists before he becomes the legendary commander that history remembers, which actually makes him the type of figure that Warhorse can use particularly well. The studio doesn't have to present him at the height of his fame and can instead show the man before he becomes the myth.
Historically, Zizka is almost indistinguishable from the Hussite Wars. In fact, history books describe him as the Bohemian military commander who led victorious Hussite armies against Sigismund and helped foreshadow later military tactics through his use of mobile artillery. It is also worth noting that the Hussite rebellion began in 1419 after the defense of Prague, with Hu's followers resisting the crusades sent against them.
For Kingdom Comewould mean that Zizka could serve as a historical doorway through which Warhorse could connect the same personal, relatively intimate story of Henry's journey with a much larger conflict still set 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 just have to place him close enough to the people and choices that the story was already moving towards.
And in fact, it might even be the better approach. The reason why Henry works so well as the main character in Kingdom Come: Deliverance is because he is more of a regular participant in the story rather than the sole person responsible for changing everything. If KCD3 approaching Prague, Hus, Zizka, Sigismund and the beginning of the Hussite movement, Henry can still be the lens through which the 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 remain small.
The Hussite Wars would be Kingdom Come's biggest change yet
The Hussite Wars would be a great escalation for Kingdom Comebut that 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 conflicts 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 begin to feed into each other.
It 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 charged, but they're still largely about survival in a world that hasn't yet broken. But a game closer to Hussite Wars can feel more unstable from the start. Pretty much everything and everyone would matter more than they ever did, and it would simultaneously put faith at the center, even more than it was in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
But it would also give the next game an excuse to change big, just like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 did after his predecessor. The Hussite era brings 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 the story gets bigger. The conflict that has been 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 can already be written into history
Of course, none of this means that Warhorse has confirmed the plot for the next one Kingdom Come game. In fact, it currently calls it a “new Kingdom Come adventure” rather than attaching “Exemption” to the title, the game could feature a different protagonist, a different region, or even a different moment in medieval history. Still, if the next game continues forward from KCD2the most obvious direction is already there. The pieces are frankly too interconnected to just ignore.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 leaving Henry in a world where the conflict between Wenceslaus and Sigismund is far from an isolated political dispute. Jan Zizka's presence points to a future that history already remembers. The death of Jan Hus, the turmoil of Prague, the demise of Wenceslaus, the claims of Sigismund and the Hussite Wars all predate the same timeline. And for a series that has always treated story as the driving force behind story, all of these events are potential futures for it.
But that's also why it's so exciting. Warhorse doesn't need to invent an obvious next step out of thin air, as it can simply follow the path it's already on. If Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3 heading towards the Hussite Wars, it could give the series its most ambitious story yet while staying true to the grounded historical identity that made it stand out in the first place.
- Released
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February 4, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+/Use of alcohol, blood and grime, sexual content, strong language, intense violence, partial nudity
- Developer
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Warhorse Studios
