Booker T is heading to court.
While it’s far from anything he did wrong, he’s looking to take aim at Activision, the publishers of the Call of Duty video game series. PWInsider has reported that his case against the company is going to court over infringement due to the fact one of the characters from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 looks might familiar.
The game features the character David “Prophet” Wilkes, where Booker feels the character looks a little too close to his gimmick from 2000, where Booker competed in WCW as GI Bro. The gimmick came from his time in the Misfits In Action stable, where Booker adopted a military look to match with his fellow stablemates.
Booker even re-established the GI Bro look as part of his aesthetic in the Bad Bunny video for “Booker T,” also showing up in similar attire when he stood by as Bunny performed at the Royal Rumble. Booker alleges Activision and the developer Treyarch based the look of Wilkes on Booker’s GI Bro persona.
Booker has a strong link to GI Bro and that the image is decisively him. Booker owns the copyright to the GI Bro name and published a comic book starring the character in 2015. COD released the game in 2018, giving them a couple of years to have seen the character as potential inspiration besides Booker’s long standing career.
PWInsider had a chance to view the nine-page filing and it’s very clear that Booker T sees his likeness in Wilkes and that he feels Activision ripped him off.
“This is an action for copyright infringement. Booker T. created two comic books based on his character “G. I. Bro.” G.I Bro is a special operations action hero. Defendants published a series of multiplayer, first-person shooter games under the general title “Call of Duty.” In 2018, defendants released Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, a “prequel” to the prior videogame Call of Duty: Black Ops III. In Call of Duty: Black Ops III, one of the “specialist” characters was David “Prophet” Wilkes, who had replaced 90% of his body with “cybernetics” to enhance his fighting ability. For the “prequel,” Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Defendants chose to depict “Prophet” as he was before he remade himself. They could have drawn him any way they wanted. But they chose to steal Booker T.’s “G. I. Bro.”
It added the character was used without permission and Activision continued on with the likeness of Wilkes despite being made aware it was infringing dangerously close on his property. The lawsuite claims the game has made over $1 billion from the game since its release, potentially not off as it reportedly made close to $500 million within the first three days of release. With sales that still came from that holiday season and microtransactions, it’s likely possible.
Stay tuned to Bodyslam as we will update this when we get more details.
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