Michael Rooker Says It Was A “Great Choice” To Bring Harper Back

Michael Rooker is back as Mike Harper in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, and he had plenty to say about his return to the iconic video game franchise.

The cat’s out of the bag: Mike Harper survived the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, meaning the choice to save him was the correct one, allowing him and his wisecracking self to be a part of JSOC and help Desmond Mason take down the guild, Black Ops 7 reality warping campaign.

HHW Gaming got to speak with Michael Rooker about making his return to the iconic video game franchise, and basically, he’s more than happy to be back.

Michael Rooker Says It Was A Great Choice To Bring Mike Harper Back

The first question immediately was how the game’s developers pitched the idea of Harper’s return in Black Ops 7 to him, and how they made the choice not to shoot Harper in Black Ops 2 the canon decision in the game.

“Oh, come on. Great choice. Mike Harper, fan favorite,” Rooker begins. “That whole concept of making that choice, that moral choice, to shoot Mike Harper, or not shoot Mike Harper. Shoot Mike Harper and save the world. Or hem the world. I’m not shooting my buddy. And that was a big choice for people, for gamers, and it’s a big deal. And so, that really, I think, embedded that character even more in folks’ minds. So now that Mike Harper is back in Black Ops 7, it’s just, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It’s about time. I know that’s what they’re going to be thinking, because that’s what I thought. I was like, “Yeah, well, it’s about time. Why not?”

Rooker Was Ready To Be A Part of The Design Process

Black Ops 2 was released more than a decade ago, meaning the design process for video games has, for all intents and purposes, gotten more sophisticated.

We spoke with Rooker about taking part in the process for Black Ops 7, and he revealed it’s a bit of a mix of new and old, but

“It was a big difference in the facial motion capture. We have cameras now that record the motion capture for the face, the eyes, the mouth, and all that stuff,” Rooker revealed to HHW Gaming.”Technically, it’s going to be way more detail. They’ve got the making of this game; the chips are different. All the internal stuff that they’re using to put everything together, to make the hair, was a big thing back then. The hair is a big thing. So they’ve gotten way better with that, and it’s just phenomenal stuff. And the motion capture is basically the same. The main thing for me was that it threw me for a loop for about five minutes, until I got used to having this camera in my face and the lights shining in my eyes. Once you’re over that, then it’s basically, yeah, I can do this scene with someone.

He continued, “The ADR room is basically old, tried-and-true stuff. There’s not a lot of big… There may be a lot… There very well may be advances in the recording aspect of this stuff that I don’t know about. I’m not a professional recording artist, or anything like that, so I don’t know the technology that goes in behind that. But I know for a fact that my job inside the studio hasn’t really changed.”

“As an actor, I’m still there, and try to get in the moment, or back to that moment, and make it as real as possible. That’s my goal anyway.”

Rooker Was Suprised At The Lasting Impact of Mike Harper Since Black Ops 2

One thing that surprised the Guardians of the Galaxy and The Walking Dead star was how popular Mike Harper became after his appearance in Black Ops 2, which led the developers to bring him back.

“Oh, you know what? I was surprised back then, back in the day, how popular that character ended up being, ” Rooker revealed. “And they were always telling me, “Oh, this is going to be great. They’re going to love this. People are going to love this.” And they did. People absolutely, absolutely, dug it. And I didn’t really stay with games that much, I did that, but I moved on. I did film and stuff like that. And as you know, gamers and cinema people, kind of different animals.”

“But this is going to be really a good combination now, because we’re getting to a point in gaming, where it’s looking very cinematic, “he continued.

“And now it’s unreal that they’re going to make a film based on the biggest game franchise in the world. So it’s about time, because I’m like, “Yeah, do it, man. Get these gamers off the couch, and into the theater.”

Who knows, maybe Mike Harper will end up in the film adaptation as well; it only makes sense.

You can peep our entire interview, where we touched on other topics above as well. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is out now.