Wolfenstein’s BJ Blazcowicz is Doomguy’s great-great-grandfather

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One of the founders of iD software, the studio behind games including Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, has confirmed that several of the team’s most famous characters are all part of the same family.

Wolfenstein 2’s linearity is what makes it worth talking about.

In December last year, former iD developer John Romero tweeted about a series of adverts for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. In the tweet, he said that Tom Hall, co-founder of the studio, invented the character of BJ Blazcowicz (who first appeared in 1992’s Wolfenstein 3D) based on Keen from the Commander Keen series. Commander Keen trivia fans may be aware that the character’s real name is Billy Blaze, which bears a striking resemblance to Wolfenstein’s central character.

A fan theory surrounding the characters, however, suggests that’s more than a coincidence, and that BJ Blazcowicz, Commander Keen, and Doom’s infamous Doomguy are all related. When a twitter user asked Romero to respond to the theory, Tom Hall stepped in to confirm that “the lineage isn’t a theory. Fact.”

The lineage states that Blazcowicz is Keen’s grandfather. In turn, Keen is either Doomguy’s father or grandfather (Hall isn’t completely clear in his tweet), confirming that the Blazcowicz clan traversed many of iD software’s central IPs.