Speaker is the public face of the ADVENT Coalition in XCOM 2 and XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. He is not interacted with directly, instead appearing only in cutscenes and mission screens, as he delivers announcements from the Elders or denounces XCOM's actions as part of ADVENT propaganda.
During the second-to-last mission in the game, XCOM hijacked the Speaker's broadcast to sabotage a public announcement of a breakthrough at the gene-therapy clinics. This "breakthrough" was fake however, as the Elders ordered the mass processing of all non-essential human life as part of the final stages of the Avatar Project and were essentially calling the lambs to the slaughter. XCOM used this transmission to show footage of what was really happening behind the scenes of ADVENT, causing mass riots all across Earth and turning the Speaker's crowd against him.
While he was last seen being surrounded by an angry mob, he appears to have escaped their wrath since he occasionally makes a few comments towards XCOM during the final mission until he is eventually shut out. The Speaker's fate remains uncertain, since he is not seen again following the successful uprising against the Elders at the end of XCOM 2.
In XCOM Legends, the Speaker is revealed to be still alive two years after the events of XCOM 2. He is trying to stop the Creator, a being using devices called Archways to create Shadow Clones of XCOM heroes, by launching nuclear strikes on Archway sites across the globe. XCOM eventually tracks the Speaker down to a Bureau bunker, where he is killed by the Shadow Clone of an XCOM soldier called Keiko Sasaki, code-named Blossom. XCOM confirms the Speaker's death and locks down his nukes.[notes 1]
Trivia[]
- Distinctive markings visible on the sides of his neck resemble that of the Thin Men, leading to a popular fan-theory that the Speaker actually is one. This has not been confirmed anywhere in-canon however.