I’ve always been very interested in the lore and canon of these games and a lot of other players seem to be too. The devs have even said before Hitman 3 was released that, while the events of the games could technically take part in a multiverse type of situation reflecting all possible player choices, that they consider certain events and methods of killing targets to be canon.
With each game players always talk about what they see as canon and talk about the clues to this but I thought now that the trilogy is complete it would be great to get a comprehensive compilation of evidence in the games relating to canon events, primarily target kill methods. So far I’ve compiled everything I know of across the games but was wondering if anyone knows of anything else and if so could they point it out to me and I will record it an add it to the compilation video and update it. Anything is appreciated and it doesn’t matter whether it is from the regular story missions, bonus missions or whatever.
Below is the video followed by my reasoning on what each clue likely means in relation to each target.
SPOILERS BELOW
Kalvin Ritter
The newspaper suggests that the police classed Ritter’s death as an accident. The only accident kill that is part of a challenge in the mission is the life boat accident so this is most likely the method
Jasper Knight
Diana says that the motivation for 47’s accident kills began with a jet ejection seat meaning this is likely the way 47 dealt with Knight
Dino Bosco
The guy says Bosco died in a ridiculously tragic manner which suggests one of the accident kills in the mission is canon
Marco Abbiati
The guy says the Father survived the Abbiati incident and didn’t even need therapy which suggests the Father was involved in the killing method which means it is likely canon that 47 dressed up as him and pushed Abbiati off the roof onto the spike
De Sanctis finds info that Caruso had Abbiati killed and says that everyone thought that it was a political assassination which backs up the Father + church spike kill method because that would require KOing a couple of people who would then obviously know that this was foul play rather than an accident
Jordan Cross
Heidi says that Abel Da Silva nailed it during the track with Jordan but that he doesn’t remember the session and that he blacked out in the hotel room and woke up the next day with a headache. This suggests 47 did the session as Da Silva and then killed Cross by pushing him off the roof
Ken Morgan
The custodian says that she heard that Ken Morgan was assassinated in a Bangkok hotel and the other custodian says that is just a conspiracy theory so it could be any method based on this really. Drowning in the toilet seems most likely
Viktor Novikov
The scene from the cutscene implies that Novikov was killed via the light rig so either by 47 uses the crow bar to drop it or blowing up the winch with the remote explosive. Novikov is also on stage on his own which means Sebastian Seto must have been KOd otherwise he would be on stage with him
Seto is also present during Dubai which means he survived
Eric Soders
The scene from the cutscene implies that 47 sabotaged KAI to kill Soders
Dawood Rangan
The security guards in Dubai say that a new recruit hasn’t turned up yet and that he previously worked for Dawood Rangan. When you find the recruit dressed as a security guard he will ask 47 for his uniform and 47 will refuse. The recruit will then say he is having a bad day and it is like Mumbai all over again. This recruit is actually Rangan’s personal bodyguard from Mumbai. When you use the fan method to kill Rangan the bodyguard walks away and sits dejected with his head in his hands so it seems that this may be what he is referring to
Zoe Washington
The scene from the cutscene implies that 47 used the Janus funeral and dagger method to kill Zoe Washington
Athena Savalas
The scene from the cutscene implies that 47 pushed Savalas through the clock window
In Dubai Carl Ingram says that Lucas Grey broke into the bank which suggests that 47 retrieved the data core during ‘The Golden Handshake’ mission rather than just collecting all 3 drives
Yates
In the hippo easter egg in Berlin the hippo says “when the wine is poured, the blood will flow” and “don’t dance the dance of death”. These are references to the wine being served at the Heralds meeting which leads to Diana stabbing Yates and Diana dancing with 47 so it is likely that this is the canon way of killing Yates and that dancing with Diana is the canon way of ending the mission. Diana also specifically tells you to meet her on the dance floor only at the end of this kill method on Yates
Great stuff. Thanks schatenjager. I’ll take a look and add it in. Is that during the part when they are just walking around talking at the start before you trigger the tour?
It doesn’t exactly narrow it down much, but the fact that Marcus Stuyvesant’s personal security guards in Dubai are worried about the fact that the new hire was one of Dawood Rangan’s old security detail seems to suggest that it wasn’t an accident kill, at least (because of the implication the new guy failed to protect his charge). Personally I think it would be a shame if the Kashmirian was non canon for Mumbai.
Which does raise the question of how much speculation shall we do in this thread? There are certain opportunities that are so heavily telegraphed or such memorable moments it would be a shame if they weren’t canon, like walking the catwalk as Kruger in Paris.
I know what you mean but I think that is why the multiverse theory plot point is a good thing i.e. everything that could’ve happened did happen as this means that everything you do is canon in some way or happened.
Plus a lot of these dialogue parts could easily be missed so you’d never know anyway. Its only canon if 47 hears it type of thing ha. And the flashback segments could be justified as 47 imagining all of the different possible ways that he could’ve killed those targets.
This is more about just me collecting all of the possible clues rather than me saying what definitely is or isn’t canon though. Whether you take the clues at face value is optional
Also possibly a bit flimsy, but the talking hippo in the Berlin easter egg says “When the wine is poured the blood will flow. Don’t dance the dance of death.” This may be just a reference to the last level being in Mendoza and IIRC you have to tango with and get poisoned by Diana on your first run through the level. BUT there is wine poured in two signature kill opportunities on the level - both ones involving doing the tour, organising the meeting of the Heralds and delivering the 1945 vintage which gets poured for the heralds. These are poisoning the wine; or going to the top floor, rescuing Diana and waiting for Yates, at which point Diana stabs Yates, and then she specifically tells 47 to meet her for the tango she poisons him during. Blood technically flows for both as Vidal gets murdered at the meeting either way, but the one where Yates gets stabbed seems to fit the bill more.
That’s a great spot thanks. It certainly does sound like he is talking about the wine at the Herald’s meeting and dancing with Diana afterwards. I agree about Mendoza. To be honest I think that this mission is one of the 2 missions that guide us along so much that its hard to class anything else as canon:-
Dubai = After a short while Lucas Grey requests to talk to the partners directly no matter what you do so I think that dealing with them in the locked down meeting room is very likely canon here
Mendoza = Diana says that she will “help you if she can” to kill the targets and the only direct way she does this is either providing distractions for the Vidal kills on the tour and stabbing Yates and the way 47s suit is just in Yates room which he then wears in the upcoming cutscene also leans towards this
Well, 47 didn’t kill the “Original” Jasper Knight for sure, but in terms of his targets, the test contract results in JK dying by ejection seat. He is a target in that sense, just not the real Jasper Knight.
Why would Diana talk about a simulation like that though? They seem to be discussing the actual Jasper and his death, indicating Soders in real life killed Knight that way and that’s why the test included it as the main showpiece.
That being said, I totally believe the reason the Fortune Teller is homeless in “A Gilded Cage” is because 47 killed Mendola as the fortune teller and it ruined his business.
This is an amazing little detail but since you mentioned this I’ve taken a look at the new recruit in Dubai and replayed Mumbai for the first time in a while. Noticed that the new recruit is actually Rangan’s personal bodyguard from Mumbai:-
Crazy attention to detail by IOI. Even so, like you said the dialogue that the guards say doesn’t specifically identify any one kill method because there are multiple ways that Rangan could’ve been killed. The only mission stories where we get up close and personal to him all lead to accidents anyway too so its open for debate really.
Yes but the scenes undoubtedly show kill methods from the missions and Lucas Grey is shown in a couple of them too such as when he is standing behind Novikov as the light rig falls so this suggests that this was the kill method in this case too.
I think it is meant to have a double meaning - 47 killed Zoe via the funeral method and he is guilty about Lucas Grey’s death.
The actual conversation has Vidal asking about 47, specifically, and how his “accident MO” started. Diana’s reply is “it began with a jet ejection seat”. Now this isn’t absolute proof, but the only jet ejection seat we ever see in canon is the Jasper Knight mission story.
On the Showstopper cutscene, you see Viktor explicitly getting crushed by the light rig.
On the Situs Inversus cutscene, you see Soders explicitly getting his blood sucked out (I think? lol).
But during the Grey cutscene, you only see him lying on a casket. No Zoe, no Janus, no knife.
Also, if that were to be the case, it seems like a really weird thing to do since Zoe doesn’t have a lot of relevance on the story. Not as much as Soders, Grey or the partners at least.
Same thing applies to Savalas, although the partners and Milton-Fitzpatrick are heavily connected, so this does seem to be the case.
