B.J. Blazkowicz

B.J. Blazkowicz entered the Wolfenstein series with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. The motion comic series created to promote 2009's Wolfenstein claims a continuous (partially retconned) timeline with Wolfenstein 3D,[8] Spear of Destiny,[9] Return to Castle Wolfenstein,[10] and finally Wolfenstein[11] (later continued in Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus).

The missions that Blazkowicz participates in include assassinating a series of fictional leaders of German bio-chemical warfare research programs and eventually killing Adolf Hitler himself in Wolfenstein 3D,[8] defeating the Nazi plot to use the Spear of Destiny to summon the Angel of Death in Spear of Destiny,[9] and foiling Heinrich Himmler's ritual to resurrect Heinrich I (a historical king from medieval German history, here portrayed as an evil necromancer) in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, wherein he also finds out about Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse's plan to create an army of undead cyborgs.[10]

In 2009's Wolfenstein, he returns to fight the resurgent Fourth Reich's[11] use of a highly destructive energy of great power from the parallel world known as the Black Sun dimension,[12] which is again pitting him against Deathshead.

The New Order establishes a new timeline that alters the previously perceived post-war profile, where Captain Blazkowicz suffers a head injury in 1946 that leaves him in a vegetative state for 14 years in a Polish asylum. In 1960, Blazkowicz awakens from his vegetative state as he is about to be executed, and joins the resistance against the Nazis who have conquered the whole world and who include his old nemesis Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse.[13]

This storyline is continued in The New Colossus which directly follows up on the last events of The New Order where Blazkowicz nearly dies of grenade fragmentation injuries in the final battle but promptly gets evacuated by Anya Oliwa and the surviving Kreisau resistance members under the helm of Caroline Becker. Blazkowicz spends the next five months in a coma as a result of his grave wounds.

In the intro of The New Colossus, the player experiences memories of Blazkowicz's struggles during his youth with his abusive father. When Blazkowicz wakes up from his coma, he finds himself in an Kreisau occupied Nazi undersea vessel that is being attacked by the Nazis as Frau Engel has been hunting him down and effectively has taken over the commanding role after General Deathshead was assassinated by Blazkowicz.

Following the long history of Nazi killings, B.J. Blazkowicz was nicknamed "Terror Billy" by Nazi Order which becomes more apparent as the story progresses. In the past five months, The United States of America has surrendered to the Nazi Order and it's up to the Kreisau Circle to gather the thinly stretched underground Nazi resistance groups all over the United States. Also in The New Colossus, a German Jewish scientist, Set Roth, rescues B.J.'s head after he was beheaded by Frau Engel at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., on live-television, then attaches it with a Nazi-made Super Soldier's body which allows him to fight again.[14]

In the spinoff Youngblood, an aged Blazkowicz goes missing and it's up to his daughters to track him down and rescue him.

Wolfenstein RPG is set in an alternate timeline, which is mostly light-hearted and humorous, and serves as prequel to the Doom series. At the end, B.J. defeats and maims the Harbinger of Doom, a Nazi-summoned demon that is none other than the later Cyberdemon from Doom. Blazkowicz's descendant is Sergeant Stan Blazkowicz, the protagonist of Doom RPG and one of the protagonists of Doom II RPG. B.J. Blazkowicz himself was also supposed to star in an early sequel Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II, which was eventually released as just Rise of the Triad with no Wolfenstein plot connection at all.[15]

In the 2005 German film Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 – Das Geheimnis von Schloß Kottlitz,[16] William B.J. Blazkowicz, portrayed by Daniel Krauss, tracks down Nazi scientists in secret laboratories located in the Austrian Alps in order to disclose the secret of "miracle weapons" involving Dracula's bones and to find that events occurring in the Kottlitz Castle are beyond imagination.[17] In 2007, Samuel Hadida bought the rights to make a more direct adaptation of the game series and Roger Avary was given task to write and direct the project that was said to be the story of B.J. Blazkowicz's mission to Hitler's Wolf's Lair.[18]

In May 2012, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wolfenstein 3-D, Bethesda Softworks released a free B.J. Xbox Live Avatar mask over on the series' Facebook page.[19] Classic B.J. Blazkowicz Mask was made a purchasable item for Doom at Xbox Live Marketplace.[20]

In June 2017, Blazkowicz was added to Quake Champions as a playable champion. His in-game abilities include dual gun wielding and limited auto-healing.[21]

In the 2019 movie Doom: Annihilation, a group of Marines travel to a base on a moon of Mars. The first body they find is identified as "William Blazkowicz", a Marine stationed on the base. In a nod to the Wolfenstein game, his body was decapitated, alluding to the events of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, when his decapitated head was placed on a German synthetic body to resurrect him. The Marine that finds him also comments on having to tell Blazkowicz's family about his death, a vague reference to his descendants.