Highlights

  • Handsome Jack's presence in Borderlands has left a lasting impact, with potential for his return in BL4.
  • The narrative loophole of Jack overtaking another's body/mind could explain his resurrection in the next game.
  • Gearbox may leverage existing elements and past DLCs to revive Jack in Borderlands 4.

Possible Borderlands and Tales From the Borderlands spoilers ahead.

Borderlands has been garnering more attention recently due to buzz around the fourth main installment of Gearbox Software's series potentially soon returning to the looter shooter scene that it has helped shape and grow since 2009. Borderlands has built a substantial narrative and history in the time since its inception, with twists, turns, and surprising reveals throughout each entry and its related additional content, and many fans have been eagerly anticipating to see where the next title takes them.

In Borderlands 2, the series also introduced gaming to one of its most memorably impactful villains: the charismatic but ruthless character of Handsome Jack. With an imposing presence and darkly switching between tragically sympathetic and dangerously unhinged, Jack's mark on the franchise is hard to understate, even after his demise at the end of the second game. However, that was not actually the last that players saw of Jack, as he has cropped up in some form in other releases since. There is a particular plot point set up in The Pre-Sequel that resurfaced in BL3's Handsome Jackpot DLC which could provide a path for Handsome Jack's "resurrection" in some manner in Borderlands 4 if Gearbox decides to utilize it.

Though nothing is yet officially confirmed, Borderlands 4 has been hinted at and possibly teased .

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Borderlands has been hinting at a major plot element for a while, and BL4 should finally reveal more on how it will unfold in the next entry.

Borderlands 3's Handsome Jackpot DLC Set the Stage for the Series to Bring Back its Best Big Bad

One of the latter playable characters in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was the doppelganger of Handsome Jack, also known as Timothy Lawrence. Timothy's history involves him undergoing an appearance-altering treatment due to his student loan debts, which resulted in him becoming one of Handsome Jack's many body doubles. At the time of the Handsome Jackpot DLC, players discover that Timothy has been trapped in the titular casino in the years following Handsome Jack's death and rescue him from his imprisonment.

Along with retaining Handsome Jack's likeness and voice, some of his DNA was also directly implanted into Timothy as part of the process, and this seems to be creating a sort of war of personalities between them. While Timothy's fate was left somewhat fuzzy in the aftermath of the DLC, as his whereabouts and situation are currently unknown, this detail might be the key to seeing Jack live again somehow in Borderlands 4.

How 'Handsome Jack' Could Return in Borderlands 4

Telltale's 2014 Tales From the Borderlands also featured an AI version of Jack pitted against protagonist Rhys, attempting to overtake him as well via a digital implant containing his consciousness. The concept, then, of Handsome Jack usurping another's body/mind is a kind of narrative loophole that the franchise has flirted with in the past, and could be used to explain his return if it were so inclined.

One potential avenue would be something akin to the Fantastic Fustercluck and Claptastic Voyage DLCs, set around delving into Psycho Krieg and Claptrap's psyches respectively. Similar to those, as the 'real' Handsome Jack attempts to overtake Timothy's identity completely, the story could revolve around this internal mental/psychic struggle. This framework has worked well in the past, as players got to experience aspects of these characters within surreal mindscapes that doubled as a way to flesh them and their backstories out alongside fun and creative level design.

Borderlands 3 also had an unorthodox launch tie-in, as Gearbox released DLC for BL2 leading up to the third title's release that bridged the two, leading directly into the opening of BL3. Setting a precedent with this, Gearbox could pull a similar move for BL4, if it indeed wishes to revive Jack in some way, shape, or form. If so, there are at least a few existing elements that would blunt some of the criticism that might be leveraged against the decision.