Hitman Timeline – Everything in Chronological Order

Over the years, the chronological order of Hitman has become quite complicated. The series has gone through a remake, a soft reboot, and features multiple tie-in media. Yet, all games, books, and comics, take place in one continuous universe. To help you put everything in perspective, we created the Hitman Timeline in which we put everything in chronological order.

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Before joining the ICA

There are many references to Agent 47’s history and life before joining the ICA (International Contract Agency) throughout the games, but most is told through flashbacks. The comic book Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman actually takes place in this period in the Hitman Timeline and gives us unique insights in the character of Agent 47. The first mission of the first game, ‘Training’, also takes place before Agent 47 joins the ICA.

Early years at ICA

In the game Hitman: Codename 47, Agent 47 joins the ICA. This chapter in his life is also briefly featured in the 2016 game Hitman: in its opening mission, we see Agent 47 join the ICA and getting assigned to Diana Burnwood as his handler. His first missions as a hired killer eventually led him to Professor Ort-Meyer, who created Agent 47 in an attempt to create the perfect assassin. In the end, Agent 47 kills Ort-Meyer. In Hitman: Contracts, Agent 47 relives some of his memories, taking him back to these early missions.

Professional killer at the ICA

After initially retiring as assassin, he returns into the fold of the ICA in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin after a friend of is gets abducted by the mafia. He realizes that he is destined to be a hired killer. In the following games and books, Agent 47 takes on various missions for the ICA.

The book Hitman: Enemy Within revolves around a rival assassination organization called the Puissance Treize, which is trying to destroy the ICA. In Hitman: Blood Money, Agent 47 and the ICA wage war against another rival organization, The Franchise, who are after Ort-Meyer’s cloning technology and thus Agent 47. During the events of Hitman: Blood Money, Agent 47 gets seriously wounded. This is when the opening sequence of Hitman: Contracts takes place and Agent 47 relives the memories of his past (the rest of Hitman: Contracts, essentially a remake of the first Hitman game).

In Hitman: Absolution, a faction within the ICA itself is planning to raise a genetically enhanced girl as a future assassin, only to be thwarted by Diana Burnwood and Agent 47. The book Hitman: Damnation takes place just before this game, as Diana Burnwood takes her first precautions to thwart the cloning ambitions within the ICA, leaving Agent 47 in the dark for a while.

World of Assassinations

In 2016, IO Interactive released a soft reboot to the series, simply called Hitman. This became the first chapter in the World of Assassinations Trilogy. The games still take place in the same continuity, but gameplaywise deviate from the previous game with an episodic structure and sandbox-styled missions. In the new trilogy, Agent 47 carries out a series of contracts that turn out to be connected and are ordered by The Shadow Client, another clone of Professor Ort-Meyer and childhood friend of Agent 47. They eventually team up to bring down Providence, a secret society that ultimately was responsible for Ort-Meyer’s cloning project.

Overachievers is an ‘expanded universe story’ writer by Michael Vogt, Hitman’s lead writer. It’s a stand-alone tale, taking place withing the context of the Hitman series.

Unclear or spin-off

Over the years, numerous spin-offs have been released, often to promote an upcoming major installment in the series. Although these do not necessarily take place outside the main canon, the don’t contain any story elements, making it hard to place them in an exact spot on the Hitman timeline. What’s more, most of these games are very hard or even impossible to get nowadays. Most mobile installments have been pulled from their official app stores.

The movies – unrelated

Two major motion pictures based on Hitman have been released over the year. Although they are based on the same character, the movies do not take place in the same canon as the video games. Both movies themselves aren’t even connected in any way, even though they were only released eight years after each other.

This Hitman Timeline has been compiled with as much care as possible. Nevertheless, it is possible that an error has crept into our chronological order. Do you know more about Hitman than we do? Then please contact us and tell us what we did wrong!