The MW4 cast is led by Young Mazino as Private Park Hyun-Jun, the main playable soldier, with Barry Sloane back as Captain John Price, Samuel Roukin as Ghost, Elliot Knight as Gaz, Rya Kihlstedt as Kate Laswell, María Elisa Camargo as Valeria Garza and Mads Mikkelsen as the villain known as the Archer. In total, the broadest published list credits 21 named roles for Modern Warfare 4's campaign.
We built this list from the cast credits on Wikipedia's Modern Warfare 4 page, MacMyths' cast roundup (which compares it with a Radio Times list), Activision's own story and trailer posts, Gfinity's report on Mikkelsen and Soap Opera Network's report on William Lipton, all checked in November 2026. There are no story spoilers here; character roles are described only as far as the official trailers go.
The Main Cast at a Glance
Modern Warfare 4 splits its story between two threads. One follows a young South Korean squad caught in a North Korean invasion of Hajin; the other follows John Price, on the run after the events of Modern Warfare III, working off the books with an old enemy. The cast reflects that split, mixing returning Task Force 141 actors with a largely new group of Korean and American performers.
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Pvt. Park Hyun-Jun | Young Mazino |
| Capt. John Price | Barry Sloane |
| Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley | Samuel Roukin |
| Capt. Kyle "Gaz" Garrick | Elliot Knight |
| Kate Laswell | Rya Kihlstedt |
| Valeria Garza | María Elisa Camargo |
| The Archer | Mads Mikkelsen |
| Phillip Graves | Warren Kole |
| Vladimir Makarov | Julian Kostov |
| Milena Romanova | Tina Ivlev |
| Capt. Kwon "Kal" Hae-Soo | Joseph Lee |
| 1st Lt. Reginald West | Luke Tennie |
| Cpl. Joseph Dunn | William Lipton |
| Sgt. So Jae-Woo | Jae Kim |
| Pfc. Cho "Chow" Han | Joon Lee |
| Pfc. Yun Jong-Moon | Daniel J. Kim |
| Pvt. Ju Kwon | Ki Hong Lee |
| Ri Ju-Young | Prisca Kim |
| Ri Seung-Ho | Jeongmin Cho |
| Lt. Ko Jin-Hyuk | Lanny Joon |
| Col. Shaw | Shawn Hatosy |
Task Force 141 and the Returning Faces
The reboot's core actors are back. Barry Sloane plays Price again, and MacMyths, citing Radio Times, describes him as the full performance-capture actor for the role; TV viewers may know him as Aiden Mathis in Revenge or Joe "Bear" Graves in Six. Samuel Roukin returns as Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley, a role he has played across the rebooted series; outside games he played John Simcoe in Turn: Washington's Spies.
Elliot Knight is back as Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, now a Captain, and is known for playing Merlin in Once Upon a Time and Colin in The Boys. Rya Kihlstedt returns as CIA Station Chief Kate Laswell, with credits including Deep Impact, Dexter and Final Destination: Bloodlines. On the other side of the law, María Elisa Camargo plays Valeria Garza, the Las Almas Cartel leader known as El Sin Nombre, and Warren Kole plays Shadow Company commander Phillip Graves, with Julian Kostov as Vladimir Makarov.
Activision's Tokyo Game Show trailer sets up the tension between these characters without giving much away: Task Force 141 has been disbanded, Ghost questions Price's methods, and Ghost and Gaz are tasked with capturing or killing their former captain, while Laswell stays in touch with him and Price teams up with Valeria. If you want to play as Ghost yourself, our Ghost skin guide covers both of his Operator skins.
Catching Up on the Returning Characters
Spoiler note: this section recaps events from Modern Warfare (2019), Modern Warfare II and Modern Warfare III, using Activision's own "Story So Far" summary. It does not spoil Modern Warfare 4.
If you skipped the earlier reboot games, the returning cast makes more sense with a little context. Price formed Task Force 141 after the London attacks and the Urzikstan operation of Modern Warfare (2019), requesting the files of Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, Johnny "Soap" MacTavish and Simon "Ghost" Riley, with Kate Laswell supporting the unit from the CIA. Valeria Garza entered the story in Modern Warfare II as leader of the Las Almas Cartel, and Phillip Graves, who founded the Shadow Company private military company, turned on Task Force 141 in Las Almas on General Shepherd's orders.
Modern Warfare III ended with Price assassinating Shepherd, which forced him underground while he hunted Makarov. That is where Modern Warfare 4 picks him up: an operator turned outlaw working outside the system he once served, pulled into uneasy alliances. Activision's summary describes a globe-trotting campaign covering trench warfare in Korea, close-quarters combat in New York, high-speed chases through Paris and SAS night raids in Mumbai, which is why the cast spans so many nationalities and factions.
Players who pre-ordered digitally got Campaign Early Access from October 16, a week before the October 23 launch, so a lot of players met this cast before Multiplayer opened. That early window covered digital pre-orders of the Standard Digital or Vault Edition on Xbox, PlayStation 5, Battle.net, Steam and Nintendo Switch 2.
Park, Kal and the Sierra-1 Squad
The Korean front introduces most of the new cast. Young Mazino plays Private Park Hyun-Jun, a South Korean marine and the main playable character, and MacMyths reports, citing Radio Times, that he provides both voice and motion capture. Mazino is best known as Paul Cho in Beef and as Jesse in The Last of Us.
Park's squad, Sierra-1, is played by Jae Kim (Sergeant So Jae-Woo), Joon Lee (Cho "Chow" Han), Daniel J. Kim (Yun Jong-Moon), Ki Hong Lee (Ju Kwon) and William Lipton as USMC Corporal Joseph Dunn. Lipton is a former General Hospital star, where he played Cameron Webber, and he announced his part in the game on Instagram after the reveal trailer. Luke Tennie, known from Shrinking, plays their commanding officer, USMC First Lieutenant Reginald West. Joseph Lee plays Kal, a South Korean special warfare captain; his screen credits include George Nakai in Beef and Lt. Mura in Star Trek: Picard.
The development team took care with this part of the story. According to Wikipedia's sourcing, Infinity Ward consulted regional specialists, North Korean defectors and its own Korean staff, and a dialect coach, June Yoon, advised on differences between North and South Korean speech and suggested edits to make dialogue more culturally appropriate.
The Archer and the Antagonists
The biggest name in the cast is Mads Mikkelsen, who plays the Archer. He was revealed at the end of the campaign trailer shown during Xbox's Tokyo Game Show broadcast on September 17, 2026, and Gfinity reports the role was confirmed in a post on the Call of Duty blog. Activision's own trailer post describes an unknown weapon of war being delivered "to a dangerous enemy known only as 'The Archer'." Mikkelsen is known for Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, Hannibal Lecter in the TV series Hannibal and Cliff in Death Stranding.
On the North Korean side, Prisca Kim plays Ri Ju-Young, the commander whose trailer line is "Shut down the peninsula, then we invade," with Jeongmin Cho as Ri Seung-Ho and Lanny Joon as Lt. Ko Jin-Hyuk. Tina Ivlev plays Milena Romanova, and Shawn Hatosy is credited as Col. Shaw. What happens to all of these characters is the stuff of spoilers; if you have finished the game or do not mind knowing, our older MW4 ending explained post covers it in full.
Where the Cast Lists Disagree
We could not find an official, studio-published credit sheet for the cast, and the published lists do not match perfectly. MacMyths counts 21 named roles on the broadest list, against 19 actor-role pairs in the Radio Times roundup published on October 23, 2026. The two extra names are Tina Ivlev as Milena Romanova and Ki Hong Lee as Ju Kwon; Wikipedia's plot credits include both.
Spellings vary too. Wikipedia gives Kal's full name as Kwon Hae-Soo, while MacMyths writes Kwon Sae-Soo, and MacMyths lists Sergeant So Jae-Woo's actor as Jae U Kim where Wikipedia has Jae Kim. When in doubt, the in-game credits are the final word. One more name worth knowing sits outside the campaign: in DMZ, the elite mercenary Blix is credited to Rich Ting, and Blix is also Season 1's Battle Pass Operator.
Playing as the Cast
Many of these characters double as Multiplayer and DMZ Operators. Eight of them unlock by finishing specific campaign missions, according to Activision's launch Operator list: Cho ("Mayhem"), Dallas ("Hired Gun"), Luca ("Traffic"), Oh-Ji ("Assassins"), Kal ("Defection"), Dunn ("Counter Attack"), West ("Losing Ground") and Park ("Decapitation"). Price, Valeria, Ghost and Blix come with the Vault Edition's Hostile Alliance pack, and Ju Kwon's unlock is still listed as classified.
The campaign itself is covered mission by mission in our older MW4 campaign guide. Once you have your Operators, Season 1 adds new maps and modes to use them in, which our Season 1 overview and game modes guide explain. PC players blocked from online play by the security check should start with our attestation error fix.
Getting the Campaign Operators Without the Replay
If you want those eight story Operators on your account but do not have time to play through the campaign, or want it done on a harder difficulty, the store's MW4 campaign completion service finishes the whole campaign for you on Any, Veteran or Realism difficulty. The product page lists the rewards as the base Operators for Cho, Dallas, Luca, Oh-Ji, Kal, Dunn, West and Park, plus the "No More Rules" Calling Card, "Gone Dark" Emblem, "Ready Line" Loading Screen, three Double XP tokens and two Double Weapon XP tokens.
A player completes it by hand on your account after checkout, once you share your platform and login, with delivery listed at 12 to 48 hours on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC or Switch 2. The Modern Warfare 4 hub has the store's other services.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who plays Price in Modern Warfare 4?
Barry Sloane returns as Captain John Price, a role he has played throughout the rebooted Modern Warfare series.
Is Mads Mikkelsen in MW4?
Yes. He plays the antagonist known as the Archer, revealed in the campaign trailer at Tokyo Game Show on September 17, 2026.
Who is the main character in MW4?
Private Park Hyun-Jun, a South Korean marine played by Young Mazino, is the main playable character, while the parallel story follows Captain Price.
Who voices Ghost in MW4?
Samuel Roukin returns as Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley.
Who plays Gaz in Modern Warfare 4?
Elliot Knight, known for Once Upon a Time and The Boys, returns as Kyle "Gaz" Garrick.
How many actors are in the campaign?
The broadest published list has 21 named roles; a Radio Times roundup lists 19. No official studio credit sheet had been published when we checked in November 2026.