When Bray Wyatt was launched by WWE in the summertime of 2021, the choice not solely massively affected his personal profession, however the plans of these engaged on the WWE 2K22 online game.
WWE 2K22’s MyRise story mode was going to characteristic a subplot that includes Bray, however when he was let go by WWE the story was eliminated to keep away from making the sport look outdated at launch.
It was a disappointing second for Andrea Listenberger, a author who had beforehand written storylines and promos for WWE’s TV exhibits, and had now joined WWE 2K developer Visible Ideas as a story designer.
As one in all her first duties on the WWE 2K sequence, Listenberger had labored on the Bray Wyatt storyline in WWE 2K22, and now that he was now not at WWE all his audio recordings needed to hit the reducing room flooring.
Bray’s departure from WWE was a short lived one, and he returned in October 2022 to a hero’s welcome, most notably thanking the followers for supporting him in a uncommon out-of-character promo shortly after his comeback.
Now joined by a brand new masked character known as Uncle Howdy (performed by his real-life youthful brother, recognized to followers by his ring title Bo Dallas), Bray was again on high, and on a WWE TV present in February 2023 he challenged the winner of Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley to a match at WrestleMania 39.
It was to be his final TV look. After this episode, Bray now not appeared on the present, with studies suggesting he was coping with a real, non-storyline sickness.
On August 19 it was reported that he was making ready to return once more. He didn’t. 5 days later, on August 24, 2023, Bray Wyatt – actual title Windham Rotunda – handed away on the age of 36, after a COVID-19 an infection exacerbated a earlier coronary heart situation.
As together with his earlier WWE launch – however clearly now on a a lot bigger scale – the shockwave brought on by Bray’s passing induced tremors that affected different tasks he was concerned with. One among these was WWE 2K24, which was nonetheless in improvement when he died.
In a coincidence, Bray’s demise led to his online game content material being scrapped for the second time in a row, as soon as once more affecting the work of Andrea Listenberger.
The plan had been to take the scrapped WWE 2K22 storyline and incorporate it into WWE 2K24’s MyRise mode as a substitute, utilizing a few of the beforehand recorded audio and including new materials to freshen it up.
“It was truly one thing that we had talked about doing and had been planning on doing in WWE 2K24 when he was nonetheless alive,” Listenberger instructed me earlier right this moment on a Zoom name.
“It was truly one thing that we had talked about doing and had been planning on doing in WWE 2K24 when he was nonetheless alive.”
“We had been planning on repurposing a few of the cutscenes that we had shot with some new further voice content material with Bray, to type of complement it and to make it make sense together with his character then.”
In the end, the plan was to to be deserted once more when Bray handed, and people audio clips recorded for WWE 2K22 clips went unheard once more, seemingly for good this time.
Till now.
Final yr, Bray’s brother Bo and his Uncle Howdy character made a return in a brand new faction known as the Wyatt Sicks. A lot of its storyline was based mostly on a break up character angle, with vignettes exhibiting Bo and his alter-ego Howdy having conversations with one another, typically speaking about Bray’s demise.
Final month WWE 2K25’s free-roaming story mode The Island obtained an replace which added a completely new sub-quest based mostly on the Wyatt Sicks. By coming into the Wyatt cabin and combating the members of the faction in sequence, gamers can unlock a lot of movies.
Each choice has penalties 👀 🔜 #WWE2K25 pic.twitter.com/rHIP2RGXix
— #WWE2K25 (@WWEgames) July 8, 2025
A few of these movies characteristic model new vignettes of Bo and Howdy in dialog, however – crucially – in addition they embody footage of the unused Bray Wyatt character mannequin and sound clips from WWE 2K22, permitting followers to lastly see and listen to this ‘misplaced media’ for the primary time.
Listenberger instructed me that when it was agreed that The Island could be getting a Wyatt Sicks storyline, she realised the unused footage was an ideal option to honour Bray’s reminiscence in a means that couldn’t be completed on common WWE tv.
“We had been speaking about perhaps doing one thing with the Wyatt Sicks and the Island,” she instructed me. “And I used to be kicking round, you already know, ‘what sort of story are we going to inform with them? It actually might be something’.
“And once I was watching the Wyatt Sicks, the vignettes on TV, the promos with Bo and Howdy, the thought to make use of a few of the unreleased Bray footage got here to me.
“There was like a really particular line in one of many promos about letting his reminiscence turn out to be a mausoleum. And that basically caught with me. And, you already know, I thought of it. I thought of it for some time.
“There was like a really particular line in one of many promos about letting his reminiscence turn out to be a mausoleum. And that basically caught with me. And, you already know, I thought of it. I thought of it for some time.”
“And I thought of, truthfully, plenty of private issues that I’ve gone by means of in my life that…” she paused. “I imply, there’s a motive that these specific vignettes resonated with folks. They resonated with me.
“And that was type of the genesis for the thought of ‘properly, what do we’ve that’s type of distinctive, and what do we’ve that solely we’ve, and what can we do in our online game that they’ll’t even do on programming, that we might do?’ One thing that’s type of distinctive and brings one thing a bit of particular to the world.
“That’s the place the genesis for the thought got here from. I type of tiptoed as much as Lynell [Jinks], the artistic director, someday.
“I used to be like ‘wou… would they allow us to do that? This can be a little out of the field, and we need to make it very clear that we’re going to deal with it respectfully, And we need to [make sure] this isn’t a shock worth type of factor. That is very a lot in keeping with how I believe that they’re representing the entire storyline, the entire Wyatt Sicks on tv.’
“And that’s the way it type of all began, together with the collaboration with the brand new footage with Bo and Uncle Howdy as properly.”
This new footage, within the typical blurry-filmed, fourth wall-breaking fashion of the Bo and Howdy vignettes on TV, have the characters discussing the discharge of the unseen footage within the sport.
“This isn’t actual, that is only a sport,” Bo says in a single clip. “We play alongside as an escape. An escape to a world the place loss doesn’t triumph, the place the ache and struggling of existence is eased for only a second. Only a second. The place that which was left unfinished appears full. Nevertheless it’s not actual. None of that is actual.”
Bo additionally notes that he hoped the “whispers had been extra than simply an echo”, however concedes that “they’re simply remnants, incomplete, unfinished, reminders of what’s going to by no means be, a life left as deserted as a online game cutscene on the reducing room flooring”.
I requested Listenberger how a lot of this dialogue was written by her, and the way a lot was enter from Bo. She defined that it was largely a collaboration between 2K’s writers and WWE’s personal writers, guaranteeing that Bo was comfortable alongside the way in which.
“Our course of type of varies for lots of various issues,” she defined. “For this one, we labored with WWE artistic, as we all the time do with sure issues, particularly with video content material.
“We wrote the script. We labored with their aspect, went backwards and forwards, ensuring that there wasn’t something that he needed so as to add, made it very clear that ‘hey, you already know, we’re telling a narrative however that is additionally your story’. So we went backwards and forwards with a few of the language and all the things.
“However, you already know, I believe what’s actually type of good in regards to the story, is that it’s so common. So there’s issues which can be particular to Bo, however there’s issues that everybody can relate to.
“So a few of it’s a little little bit of a part of that collaboration from WWE. There’s some phrases from them, there’s some phrases from us, and it’s simply this marriage of the perfect of each worlds.”
By far crucial a part of the brand new Wyatt Sicks storyline is the ultimate video, which is unlocked while you defeat Uncle Howdy himself.
In a closing chat between Bo and Howdy, the dialogue ends in a constructive be aware, with Bo saying he’d like to remain within the sport for a bit of longer, as a result of “even an phantasm can maintain peace”, and Howdy telling him: “This isn’t your finish. The work should proceed. It’s what I – he – would have needed.”
We then get to listen to an audio-only clip of Bray, through the WWE 2K22 recording session, addressing the participant as a part of a mission. Besides now, due to his subsequent demise, they tackle a completely new that means, made clearer by footage of Bo’s face added to the image. That is now not a message to the participant, that is now a message to Bray’s mourning brother.
“I’ve taught you properly, little firefly,” Bray says within the audio. “I’m so happy with you. And you already know what they are saying. In the event you love one thing a lot that you simply need to squeeze it till it dies, do it if you must. However attempt to let it go.
“In the event you love one thing a lot that you simply need to squeeze it till it dies, do it if you must. However attempt to let it go.” – Bray Wyatt
“Don’t be unhappy. You’ll all the time be my little firefly. And I’ll all the time be careful for you. You’ve completed a lot for me.”
After which, his closing line – “Goodbye! For now.”
It’s an especially emotional ending to what gamers initially suppose is only a cool option to hear some unreleased content material, and in keeping with most of the feedback beneath the assorted YouTube movies of the footage shared on-line, quite a few tears have been shed over that closing message particularly. A few of these had been mine – Bray Wyatt was my private favorite, and the data that this dialogue wasn’t initially meant for this goal doesn’t make it any much less poignant to listen to.
Because it seems, the message additionally meant extra to Listenberger. Not solely did a few of her deserted work lastly attain the general public, it was work that had a deeper that means to her, as a result of when it was initially written she had pulled it from real-life experiences.
“There was one thing that felt a bit of full circle about it,” she instructed me. “And, to be actual, it wasn’t a lot about placing out stuff that didn’t get seen.
“There was one thing very unusual about… you already know, the strains that ended up being within the components that we included – as a result of there have been a number of storylines in 2K22, I didn’t write all of them, to be clear. There are different writers on the tasks. I need to be very clear that this can be a staff collaborative atmosphere, I don’t write all the things.
“However the strains that basically labored for this story, there have been a lot of them that I did write. And looking out again and listening to a few of the strains once I was reviewing the footage, put me again in that house once I was writing them forward of 2K22.
“And plenty of the story – with out, you already know, getting an excessive amount of into it – it’s type of common. And it was impressed by some issues which have occurred in my life, as a result of everybody can relate to non-public loss, and the way do you progress ahead whereas nonetheless honoring somebody? As a result of that may be very, very exhausting.
“So seeing one thing that was completed that I wrote prior to now when issues had been perhaps a bit of bit tougher for sure private causes, getting used within the current for a narrative that’s meant to type of problem folks and push folks, however then in the end have fun this concept?
“That felt like some type of closure.”
The brand new Wyatt Sicks storyline is offered to play now in The Island mode in WWE 2K25.
