Halo Infinite toy leak hints a major death might devastate gamers

While Microsoft may still be very secretive about Halo Infinite until it is unveiled at an Xbox Series X event later in July, a toy leak that emerged Thursday may have just given spoiled a major plot detail: A major character from Halo: Nightfall and Halo 5: Guardians might already be dead.

Story spoilers for Halo 5: Guardians and Halo Infinite follow.

On June 1, Reddit user Kittyrules808 spotted a new image for Halo Infinite toys on a Mega Construx website that is now down for maintenance. The image in question features Master Chief and three other characters, two of whom are aliens. One of them is a generic Covenant Grunt but the other is an ape-like Brute wielding a Gravity Hammer.

That Brute has the helmet of Spartan Jameson Locke on his armor, suggesting that the alien has either already killed Locke — or he will during the events of Halo Infinite.

According to Eurogamer, this new Halo Infinite character is called Hyperius and may be connected to the Banished. If Hyperius is the main villain of Halo Infinite, killing Locke would certainly be a scary way to assert dominance and really get under Master Chief's skin.

For those that are a bit fuzzy on their Halo lore, Jameson Locke is a Spartan-IV soldier that first appeared in the web series Halo: Nightfall. He took on a larger role in Halo 5: Guardians where he tracked down Master Chief with Fireteam Oasis after the series protagonist goes rogue. Locke was actually playable in several missions and eventually fights Master Chief before they join forces to combat the game's main villain.

Locke was alive and well at the end of Halo 5: Guardians, even if his role in the plot was a bit overblown in teaser trailers and disappointed many. Sadly, this character doesn't appear to have a happy ending in Halo Infinite. Either he doesn't make it through the game alive, or at the very least he loses his helmet.

The Inverse Analysis — Spartan Locke's death would be a pretty shocking moment in Halo Infinite, so it's a shame that this toy leak had to spoil the plot point early. While it is possible that Locke is still alive and Hyperius just has his helmet as some kind of power move, that seems much less likely. As I've mentioned, killing Locke would be an excellent way to establish Hyperius and the Banished as an imposing threat and could make for an entertaining way to start off the game.

It now remains to be seen if Microsoft will reveal Locke's death before the launch of the game. After Halo Infinite's deep dive during Microsoft's Xbox Series X game presentation, we should have a better idea of how it plays and what the game is about. Once we know that, Locke's death might make a lot more sense.

Halo Infinite will be released as an Xbox Series X launch title this holiday season.