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| “ | Make sure this doesn't happen again, doctor. | „ |
| ~ Janus to Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer. |
Janus is a major antagonist of the World of Assassination trilogy in the Hitman videogame series, serving as a minor antagonist in HITMAN and the secondary antagonist of HITMAN 2, where he is the main target of its fifth mission "Another Life", and later serves as the overarching antagonist of the sixth mission “The Ark Society”. He is also a minor antagonist in the 2017-2018 prequel comic book series Agent 47: Birth of the Hitman.
He was voiced by Richard Katz.
Background[]
Very little is known about Janus, due to his painstaking effort to cover up his past. Due to this, information about his past is vague and contradictory, with theories about him born in Belarus to simple farmers while others assume he is of communist royalty and the bastard son of Nikita Khrushchev.
Janus was known to be a high-ranking member of the KGB, being renowned for his skills as a spy. However, due to the Soviet Union collapsing, Janus used his skills as a spy to set up a network of people, which eventually lead to him becoming the first Constant of Providence, a shadow government controlling the world under the nose of it's global population.
Due to his advanced age, Janus retired, becoming the founder of the Ark Society instead. Eventually, he retreated to Whittleton Creek, a fictional city in Vermont, being on witness protection in case one of his enemies came to finish him off. He was eventually assassinated by Agent 47, in order to frame him as the Shadow Client and track down the Ark Society.
Providence nonetheless quickly found out that the "discovery" of Janus being the Shadow Client was a hoax and continued their pursuit of Grey and 47.
Personality[]
Janus is known for his extremely high intellect and skill as a spymaster, being respected and feared by those who know of his exploits. He was known for his ruthlessness and effectiveness, being seen as a shadow by most people, with many thinking of him as little more than a boogeyman or a myth.
However, at the time of his death, Janus' advanced age has caught up with him. He has lost most of his will to live, due to the boredom of hiding in a quaint suburban town and the fact that he can no longer continue his line of work. He is grumpy, rude, and dissatisfied, leading to him being short-tempered towards his bodyguards. He is also seems to be going senile, rambling to anyone in an earshot and going off in tangents for no reason, and has little regard for his health and safety, smoking constantly and walking off on his own, in spite of needing breathing support at all times.
Even though he has lost most of his skill as a spymaster, he is still very intelligent, allegedly recognizing Agent 47 even though he hasn't seen him for decades. He also has a photographic memory, being able to recall things that happened in his childhood. He is still extremely observant, though it tends to be let down by the fact that he is waiting to die. While he is able to (possibly) recognize 47, his suicidal nature leads him to put up no resistance to his death, leaving it ambiguous to whether he had recounted 47's past to him by extreme coincidence, or if doing that was a subtle way to taunt 47 before his inevitable death.
Despite Janus' crimes, he has plenty of affability and empathy, as Janus was mentioned by Arthur Edwards to have been disgusted by Dr. Ort-Meyer denying human rights to the clones created by him.
Trivia[]
- Janus is first mentioned in "The Final Test", the third and final tutorial mission of HITMAN (2016).
- Janus is a reference to an ancient Roman god who symbolizes the past and the future. They are usually depicted as having two faces, a representation of Janus' deception.
- Janus is one of the few targets to recognize 47. Whether that is by knowing of his history as well as realizing that 47 has come to kill him is up for speculation.
External Links[]
- Janus on the Hitman Wiki
