Jean-Claude Van Damme is coming to Hitman, and you better believe he's doing splits all over the place

GamesActionHitmanJean-Claude Van Damme is coming to Hitman, and you better believe he’s doing splits all over the placeWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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I suppose I am also obligated to note his starring turn as Colonel Guile in Street Fighter, although honestly I’d rather not. Some things are best left in the past.

Anyway, when IO Interactive unveiled Van Damme as its new Elusive Target, you better believe I was interested. As usual, his character in Hitman looks to be a cartoonishly exaggerated version of his real life persona: “Max Valliant is a ruthless and unforgiving assassin whose only weakness seems to be his self-confidence,” and yeah, that fits, as does his secret agent codename, The Splitter.

For those not familiar, that’s a reference to Van Damme’s trademark move, which was famous enough that Volvo used it in an ad for its trucks in 2012. That ad has pulled in more than one million likes on YouTube, which I would say is pretty good for a spot about commercial vehicles.

It is, in a word,epic.

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YouTube

As Van Damme says in the ad, he’s had his ups and downs over the years, including an infamous coke habit through the mid ’90s and some dodgy political views. But I’m not aware of anything actually criminal (or merely vile) in his known past, and given IO Interactive’s recent experience with Conor McGregor—the studioremoved the MMA fighter from the gamein November after he was found liable for assault against a woman who accused him of rape in 2018—I imagine it has to be hoping that nothing of that sort suddenly comes to light. (Of course, McGregor’s behaviors were well known long before his Hitman appearance, which could reasonably lead one to wonder why IO signed him in the first place, but that’s another matter entirely.)

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The Splitter is set to arrive in Hitman on December 12 and will hang around until January 12, 2025. At the same time, a new $5 DLC pack will go up for sale, offering permanent access to the Replication, a two-level Arcade contract featuring The Splitter, as well as various Van Damme-inspired cosmetics.

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