John Helldiver is Arrowhead canon thanks to Helldivers 2 players: "Named by the community"

Helldivers 2 soldier in intro animation with shocked expression

(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Helldivers 2 players long ago christened the character from the game's intro cinematic as John Helldiver – the ultimate embodiment of freedom, democracy, and impossibly deep insincerity. Arrowhead has increasingly taken to this moniker, and a new interview with the game's director suggests that the name is pretty much canon now.

"I think one of the strengths of Helldivers is that it is very easy to understand the fantasy and get into it quickly," game director Mikael Eriksson tells IGN. "You can watch the opening cinematic with our John Helldiver character – named by the community – you can watch that and you can get it immediately. Then you can just participate in the fantasy and have fun."

Arrowhead has been calling the character by the name players assigned him sporadically over the years. The first instance I could find dates back to the October 2024 01.001.104 patch notes, which included an elaborate A-Team-flavored reference to the icon: "If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can enlist… John Helldiver."

More recently, in a video breaking down the creation of the intro cinematic and the decision to cast veteran voice actor Craig Lee Thomas in the role, former lead writer Russ Nickel suggests he knew the character would be an icon, even if he didn't yet have a name. "'This is gonna be John Helldiver,'" Nickel recalls thinking, though he admits that "I didn't know that would be his name at the time." Still he realized that "'We can't just get someone who's good. We need to get the funniest person we can possibly find.'"

The notion of players granting an official name to a nameless character would be weird in just about any other context, but that's how Helldivers 2 has rolled all along. Tabletop RPGs, where players collaborate with a game master to tell a collaborative story, have always been cited as a huge influence on the game's story, and Eriksson expands on that idea a bit in the new interview.

"Our primary inspiration for the Galactic War is tabletop role-playing games," he says. "And in tabletop role-playing games – for anyone who's played this – they know that there's a story that you can follow. This story is basically set, and the Game Master tells this story, but the players engage with the story in different ways and they create memories together, really powerful memories together that they share."

I think anybody who's spent time in a TTRPG campaign can relate to that moment when a dumb joke at the table slowly transforms into an important part of the story. Sometimes, the table decides that your character's uncle is a medieval Stone Cold Steve Austin, and it sticks. Other times, players decide that a guy is named "John Helldiver." So if you're ready to see ol' John Helldiver open up a can of whoopass on those invading Cyborgs, gimme a forsooth!

Check out our full guide to everything in the Helldivers 2 Siege Breakers Warbond.