Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Writer Reveals What They Took From Us

We’ll probably never get a true sequel to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or experience just how it and its predecessor would have connected up with the original Deus Ex, released all the way back in 2000. But there was a plan to wrap things up and connect all the dots, and it sounds like it would have been pretty dang cool.

Over a decade ago, Square Enix and Eidos Montreal restarted the Deus Ex franchise with 2011’s open-world-ish sci-fi im-sim prequel Human Revolution, and then followed that up with 2016’s Mankind Divided. But then Square Enix sold the studio and Embracer canceled plans for a third game in 2023, leaving plotlines dangling and never providing fans with a satisfying conclusion to the prequel games or explaining fully how they would link up to the original Deus Ex. Now, one of the writers involved with the last two Deus Ex games has shared a taste of what a third game could have been.

On January 7, Human Revolution and Mankind Divided writer Mark Cecere appeared in an episode of the podcast series From Script to Life. Asked about the future of the franchise, he revealed details on what could have happened in the next game. The big takeaway is that Jensen, the brooding cybernetic hero of the two prequel games, could never truly defeat the big bad threat of the original Deus Ex.

“He can never catch up to the Illuminati,” said Cecere. “We know the Illuminati keeps going until 2050. We know some of those same characters that are in the Illuminati inner circle are in 2050. So Jensen can never get there and do something concrete. So, what can happen? That was the question we were trying to answer at some point. So we did have…one name that we could get rid of, and that was the one [member] that Jensen would have caught up to and done something.”

But, Cecere says that whatever Jensen would have done to take out this one member would have had “repercussions” that would lead into the original game.

“By Jensen doing [that], it causes Deus Ex, if that makes sense. And that’s the tragedy of Jensen, is that he causes what happens after – by doing something— he causes Bob Page to become Bob Page. That is where we were heading,” explained Cecere.

Of course, we didn’t get that story, and instead we’re left with the not-so-great cliffhanger ending of Mankind Divided, which even Cecere doesn’t like. The writer says he agrees with “a lot of the criticism” the ending recieved and says “nothing is resolved” by the end.

As for another Deus Ex game, Cecere—who left Eidos Montreal before work began on the third game—doesn’t know if one is being made, but did admit that he tried to get involved with the last game before it was canceled.

“I was not involved, although I was in contact with people to get back in and… then it went away. I would have loved to be there to finish it off. But no news since then.”