Is Far Cry 6 a prequel to Far Cry 3?

News of the next game in the Far Cry series, Far Cry 6, leaked this morning. The game stars Giancarlo Esposito as the despotic ruler of a tropical paradise. If this premise sounds familiar, it’s because it jibes with the plot of most Far Cry games (the dinosaur scientist one not included). But thus far all of the major Far Cry games have been removed from one another, with a new cast of characters for each entry. That may not be the case in Far Cry 6, at least if some internet sleuths end up being right. Far Cry 6 may actually be a prequel to Far Cry 3, seeing the return of one of the franchise’s most memorable characters: Vaas.

The evidence for Vaas appearing in Far Cry 6 is extremely limited right now but there are a few key possibilities that point in that direction.

The scar

The above tweet by Joe Skrebels of IGN highlights one of the more convincing comparisons. The young boy pictured is named Diego. He’s the son of Esposito’s Anton Castillo, who rules the tropical island of Yara. According to the official description of the game, Castillo is attempting to restore the “nation back to its former glory by any means, with his son, Diego, following in his bloody footsteps.”

The scar on both characters does line up, so that’s a start! But we’ve got a long way to go. For one thing, Vaas has a canonical backstory that involves him having been born on Rook Islands, the setting of Far Cry 3, in 1985. There’s certainly no mention of him leaving to live on another island with his dictator poppa, before coming back to Rook Islands and giving a speech about the definition of insanity. So it’s likely there would have to be some retconning for this to be legit.

Frozen in time

This is a little less convincing, but worth considering: The official description of the game describes the setting of Yara as “a tropical paradise frozen in time.” That may just be a poetic way to describe the setting, but it may hint that “time” is a key factor here. Specifically that different time periods are important and that Far Cry 6 may be set in the past, when Vaas was a youngster.

Actor friends!

The last potential piece of evidence for now is that Esposito and the actor who originally played Vaas, Michael Mando, are currently on the same show together, Better Call Saul. Actors work together all the time, of course, and it’s not like Ubisoft needed Mando to shine a light on the talent of Esposito for them. But hey, worth mentioning.

Speaking of Mando, the actor participated in a Reddit AMA two months ago and the topic of Vaas actually came up. Here’s what he had to say:

“Vaas is my spirit animal - having co-created that character is something that will always be dear to me. I still get recognized as Vaas, and I still feel the outpouring of love for that character - makes me very happy. Who knows... maybe I will reprise the role very soon? :p Thank you for watching xo”

Certainly a wink and nudge there, if ever there was one.

The verdict?

As of right now, it’s too early to say anything definitive about whether we’re seeing a young Vaas on the box art of Far Cry 6. There may be more indicators during Ubisoft’s Forward press conference on July 12, but it’s also possible we won’t get an answer to this until the game actually launches early next year.