It's been three years since Gears of War fans were treated to Gears 5, the latest main series installment in the long-running third-person shooter franchise. Given the series' popularity, Gears 6 is an inevitability, though the game has yet to be officially revealed. Whenever Microsoft does pull the curtain back on Gears 6, it will have to answer a big question left by the ending of Gears 5. Please note that this article will have MAJOR SPOILERS for Gears 5, so proceed with caution.
The Gears of War series has mostly stuck with linear storytelling, but Gears 5 is the exception. It's business as usual in the game all the way until the very end, at which point players have to make a decision that determines the fate of two of the game's main characters. At the end of Gears 5, Reyna captures JD and Del, leaving it up to Kait Diaz to choose which one to save and which one to let die.
The Gears 5 ending plays out somewhat differently depending on who dies, and understandably so. If JD dies, Marcus is obviously a bit more upset about it since JD was his son. Conversely, if Del dies, then Marcus comforts his son in his grief. Both endings can lead to potentially interesting character dynamics in Gears 6. On one hand, Gears 6 could have a grief-stricken and vengeful Marcus angry about his son's death, and on the other hand, it could further explore the father/son relationship between Marcus and JD.
At this time, it's unclear exactly how The Coalition is going to handle Gears 5 having two possible endings. One possibility is that The Coalition will simply pick one of the endings to be canon, meaning either JD or Del will be killed off officially. The other scenario is that player choice from Gears 5 will carry over to the sequel, meaning players could go through the game with either JD or Del depending on what choice they made in the previous entry. However, that seems like it would mean a lot of extra work on the development side, so it seems less likely.
Whatever the case may be, it will likely be quite some time before Gears of War fans see what Gears 6 has to offer. The Coalition is believed to be working on a new IP right now, so it may be years before fans get answers about Gears 5's canon ending and what it will mean for the franchise moving forward.
Gears 6 is rumored to be in development.