According to public information, Ghost hails from Manchester and served in the SAS before linking up with the rest of Task Force 141. Ghost always wears his mask except for that one time during the single-player campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This particular moment is the opening cutscene of the game’s penultimate mission where Ghost takes off his mask in front of his team and Los Vaqueros. Unfortunately, players don’t get a chance to look at what Ghost looks like, so his face has remained very much a mystery - until now. Cybersleuths stumbled upon the character model for Ghost’s face inside the in-game files of Modern Warfare 2. Naturally, the Reddit post has since gone viral but not everyone is convinced. Some believe that the face is just a placeholder. Meanwhile, others would’ve loved if Infinity Ward didn’t bother putting a face model to Ghost, saying that they would’ve loved it if Ghost “didn’t have any face to place him to.”
Ghost never really explains why he wears a mask all the time. Fans speculate that “Ghost” is a nickname given to special operatives. So, when one “Ghost” dies, another one will take its place. This make it look like Ghost is immortal. Of course, this is all fans letting creativity get the best of them. Most likely, Infinity Ward gave Ghost a mask because, well, it looks cool. If something works, why bother changing it, right? Ghost’s mask has become synonymous with the Call of Duty franchise. It’d be counterproductive to unmask Ghost although it wouldn’t surprise us if we saw Activision Blizzard try to monetize an unnamed Ghost in the future. Who knows? A maskless Ghost could be added to Modern Warfare 2 as part of its premium DLC for next year. Speaking of Call of Duty, Sony just praised Activision Blizzard’s marquee shooter franchise while also throwing its competitor, Battlefield, under the bus. Finally, Microsoft claims that it’s willing to offer Sony a ten-year deal to keep Call of Duty on the PlayStation platform.
