To be bluntly honest with all the readers, and my fellow PS3 fanboys, I never really paid attention to Killzone 3 before it came out. All the trailers, features, and gameplay videos just passed me by. Now before you scold me, I was busy with other games that I felt were more important. That doesn’t by any means degrade the Killzone 3 experience. I play it every day for cryin’ out loud!

It is for those reasons that I did not notice the similarities presented in this article sooner. When I literally first saw Jorhan Stahl (CEO of Stahl Arms) talking to the Helghan Counsel in KZ3, I actually said, “What the hell is Billy Bob Thornton doing in Killzone.” I first thought it was some kind of easter egg that a character looks so alike to the real live actor. Unfortunately, upon doing some research I couldn’t find any evidence that Guerrilla Games made Jorhan purposely like Billy Bob Thornton. So I guess it’s just a weird coincidence.

Warning: Spoilers for Killzone 3 below, proceed with caution.

Not only does Mr. Stahl look like Mr. Thornton, but acts like him too! The attitude, outlook, facial expressions, thought process, and mannerisms all resemble Billy Bob Thornton played movie characters. Once the Helghan Council ordered Stahl to submit to Admiral Orlock’s orders…he acted reminiscent of a politically aware Morris Buttermaker (Bad News Bears). Before that concussive order, Stahl’s drive and determination to be the next Helghan ruler resembled the drive of Thomas Morgan’s to catch Jerry and Rachel (Eagle Eye). Lastly, just the all around behavior of Jorhan Stahl is like that of Jasper Woodcock (Mr. Woodcock).

All of these similarities seem a little too coincidental. I mean so scary coincidental that I had to contact Guerrilla Games about this. Their response is as follows.

"I discussed this with one of our senior character artists and truthfully, Billy Bob Thornton had not been an inspiration for Stahl.  I can see some resemblance since he went grey, but it is coincidental. Stahl is a much more gesticulate and puppet-like character and he was developed closer to Malcolm McDowell later in production."

So did anyone else run into this dilemma or am I just crazy? Tell me what you think!