Treyarch Reveals Major Changes Coming to the Future of Call of Duty Zombies

After back-to-back years of Black Ops titles, the final Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 update is just around the corner. From the get-go, Treyarch labeled Black Ops 7 as their biggest Black Ops game ever in terms of content, and that has shone through in the variety of maps, game modes, the frequent roll out of new in-game events, and more.

Zombies fans have also been treated to new maps and experiences, which continue the story of the Dark Aether. Beyond Black Ops 7, though, Zombies could take a different route to what players have been accustomed to.

Before one Call of Duty life cycle ends, players already look ahead to the future of the franchise, and Treyarch may have hinted at just that in their final installment of the Black Ops 7 Dev Talks.

The Future of Call of Duty Zombies Could Take a Different Turn

At the end of the Zombies segment in the final Black Ops 7 Dev Talk, Kevin Drew, Design Director at Treyarch, said: “This is a bittersweet goodbye, but I think over the last two years we’ve learned a lot, we’ve tried a lot of things in our current era, but we are ready to make something new and something that nobody has ever experienced before.”

There has been no official confirmation of what the future of Zombies could look like, and it’s likely that it will remain that way until the launch of Treyarch’s next Call of Duty game, or if Treyarch works on a Zombies mode for the next title from Sledgehammer Games.

However, the concluding statement by Drew appears to suggest that the future of Zombies will see it moving on from the core systems that have been present since Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which was released back in 2020.

This could mean a brand new story line, characters, mechanics, or something else may change in a huge way. With that said, I would predict that Treyarch will stick to the round-based formula, for instance, since their experimentation with previous modes like Outbreak and the open-world extraction Zombies experience that featured in Modern Warfare 3 (2023), weren’t exactly popular.

Breaking Down the Black Ops 7 Season 06 Zombies Update

The final Black Ops 7 Zombies update goes live with Season 06 on September 17, 2026. It brings with it a new survival map named Tenshu that tasks you with fighting off Hellhounds, Oni, and dangerous hordes of the undead in a confined section of Kowakujō. There’s also a mode that places you in the starting room of Rex Infernus, where you must survive in only the starting house with limited resources at your disposal.

The future of Zombies will see it moving on from the core systems that have been present since Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

Season 06 brings directed mode to Rex Infernus, which provides instructions on how to complete the Easter Egg on the map, with a round cap of 15. Just in time, too, as the Super Easter Egg will launch for players who have completed every main quest across all the round-based Zombies maps in Black Ops 7. Rewards for completing the Super Easter Egg include The Warden Operator.

After an action-packed year of taking down the walking dead, that concludes new Zombies content for the time being. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4’s core modes will be the campaign, multiplayer, and DMZ, alongside Warzone.

At the end of the final episode of the Season 06 Dev Talk, Treyarch thanks the community for the past two years.

5.5/10

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

Action FPS Sci-Fi Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 65/100 Critics Rec: 36% Released November 14, 2025 ESRB Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs Developer(s) Treyarch, Raven Software Publisher(s) Activision 5 Images

Engine IW Engine Genre(s) Action, FPS, Sci-Fi