Hitman 3, the new stealth title from IO Interactive, will launch on January 20, 2021. As the latest game in the long-running stealth series, Hitman 3 will put players back in the well-polished shoes of professional assassin Agent 47.

While there have only been three Hitman games in the latest series, the franchise as a whole spans over dozen, backed up by novels, comics, and even a couple of movies. Although there have been some contradictions, the existing canon has filled in almost all the gaps in Agent 47's mysterious past. To get players new to the series up to speed before the latest title, here's the full history of everyone's favorite bar-coded assassin.

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Creating An Assassin

The true story of Agent 47 begins in the 1950s, when a group of five men from vastly different backgrounds came to serve together in the French Foreign Legion during the Vietnam War. These men were Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer, Lee Hong, Pablo Belisario Ochoa, Frantz Fuchs, and Arkadij Jegorov. The Five Fathers, as they're now known, maintained their connections after they'd left the Legion.

Dr. Ort-Meyer, a German scientist specializing in genetics, went on to set up a mental institution in Romania as a cover for his cloning experiments. Funded by his former comrades, now all major crime lords and terrorist leaders, he produced clones of them to serve as organ donors. This allowed the Five Fathers to maintain youthful appearances for many decades.

However, Dr. Ort-Meyer's true goal was to create "perfect assassins," cloned subjects at the peak of physical fitness, fanatically loyal, and willing to follow any order. He produced many clones, but didn't experience any real success until the 47th attempt. Agent 47 was created on September 5th, 1964, using a blend of DNA from each of the Five Fathers. In Ort-Meyer's estimation, #47 was his first genetically complete success, and was given special attention by his creator.

The Imperfect Child

Agent 47 spent his childhood growing up alongside his fellow clones, most of whom suffered from defects and personality disorders as part of their creation process. 47 was a quiet child, and showed affection only to the pets he managed to acquire, first an escaped laboratory rabbit, then a mouse. He cried after the death of the rabbit, and was the only clone Ort-Meyer had ever witnessed show that level of emotion.

The only close relationship 47 formed while in the asylum was with fellow clone Subject 6, and together 6 and Agent 47 began undertaking assassination assignments for Ort-Meyer. Twice the pseudo-brothers managed to briefly escape their creator's clutches, before being recaptured once again. It was on their third attempt that 6 managed to permanently escape, though 47 was recaptured.

Ort-Meyer attempted to prevent further attempts by introducing drugs to erase 47's memories of 6, and suppress his emotions. These same drugs had a catastrophic effect on the other clones that they were administered to, and by the late 90s, 47 was the only clone left at the asylum. Growing angry at the lack of results from Ort-Meyer's experiments, relations between Hitman's Five Fathers began to sour. In addition, Ort-Meyer also angered his other source of funding, the secret society Providence.

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Joining the ICA

When Providence demanded that Ort-Meyer turn Agent 47, now thirty years old, over to their care, the scientist allowed him to escape instead. Rather than take revenge, Providence simply commanded Ort-Meyer to try again with an entirely new batch of clones.

Free in the world for the first time, it was only a few years before Agent 47 was approached by the International Contract Agency. In the Hitman universe, The Agency is a global conglomerate of professional assassins who extend their services to anyone who can afford them. The ICA works closely with affiliates in the FBI, CIA, MI6, and even UN to ensure they maintain political neutrality.

Agent 47's audition to join took place over two trial exercises during IO Interactive's first Hitman game, overseen by Training Director Erich Soders and 47's future-handler Diana Burnwood. Soders was suspicious of 47's mysterious background, but the clone's performance in the trials was too impressive to ignore.

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Enter Providence

Most of the Hitman games are set during Agent 47's time working for the ICA. During the series he conducts many missions both related and unrelated to his own past. Despite briefly leaving the Agency following an internal conflict during Hitman: Absolution, 47 returned to work in the late 2010s, in a series of contracts that make up the main story of Hitman (2016).

In Hitman (2016), Agent 47 carried out a number of contracts for a mysterious Shadow Client, who was eventually revealed to be manipulating the ICA. As the game progressed it became clear that the Shadow Client was using the ICA to attack Providence, and he considered the mysterious secret society to be a mutual enemy. This was confirmed when Agent 47 discovered that Erich Soders had been selling ICA intel to Providence.

In the story of Hitman 2, Providence attempted to use the ICA to strike back at the Shadow Client, who is revealed to be the mercenary Lucas Grey. After several strikes against Grey's top lieutenants, Agent 47 finally met the mercenary face to face, only to discover he is his childhood friend Subject 6. After taking an antidote to Ort-Meyer's amnesiac drug, 47 and Diana joined 6 in his mission to take down Providence.

The final missions of Hitman 2 see 47 and 6 kidnap the Constant, the top controller at Providence, answerable only to the mysterious Partners. They then go on to discover the identities of the three families at the heart of Providence: the Ingrams, the Carlisles, and the Stuyvesants. With the names of their enemies finally known, in Hitman 3 Agent 47 and Subject 6 will plan to wipe out Providence once and for all.

Hitman 3 will release on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on January 20, 2021.

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