Fans were irritated when Eidos-Montréal’s beloved Deux Ex prequel trilogy ended on a cliffhanger with Mankind Divided. They are now fully aware of what they lost out on.
Human Revolution and Mankind Divided author Mark Cecere talked about where protagonist Adam Jensen’s tale would have gone in the third game if it had not been canceled on an episode of the From Script to Life podcast. Instead of eliminating the Illuminati as a whole, the authors intended for Jensen to eliminate one member, which would have turned “Bob Page into Bob Page.”
Ion Storm’s highly influential 2000 cyberpunk adventure, Deus Ex, has Bob Page as its adversary. Thus, Jensen’s destiny is to bring about Deux Ex.
Cecere clarified, “He can never catch up to the Illuminati.” “We are aware of this. The Illuminati is said to continue operating until 2050. Some of the same characters in the inner circle of the Illuminati are known to exist in 2050. Thus, Jensen will never be able to arrive and take action.
“So, what might occur? At one point, it was the question we were attempting to answer. Therefore, there was one name we could exclude, and that was the one where Jensen would have caught up and taken action.
According to the consequences, Jensen’s actions resulted in Deus Ex, if that makes sense. And that is Jensen’s tragedy: he does something that makes Bob Page become Bob Page, which is what occurs subsequently. We were going to that place.
Unfortunately, it does not appear likely that this version of events will ever come to pass. Eidos-Montréal was forced to switch to other projects by its previous owner Square Enix following the 2016 release of Mankind Divided, including 2021’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Then, in 2022, Square Enix sold the Deus Ex franchise and Eidos-Montréal to the contentious umbrella firm Embracer. Significant layoffs at Eidos-Montréal resulted from the cancellation of a brand-new Deus Ex game that had already started in 2024.
“Alas, his journey appears done,” Elias Toufexis, who portrayed Adam Jensen at the time, said as he waved the character off for good. It felt definite even though Toufexis acknowledged he had not worked on the most recently canceled Deus Ex game and said he hoped another business might take up the Deus Ex license.
Toufexis responded to Cecere’s remarks by saying, “Hey, this would have been fun huh?”
