Battlefield 6 Dumps Celebs for Marines as EA Doubles Down on No-Nonsense Skins — Fans Call It a Savage Call of Duty Diss

Two heavyweights are about to square off in the FPS ring, and the pre-fight trash talk just went cinematic. With Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 landing within weeks of each other, DICE rolled out a live-action launch trailer that sure looks like it’s throwing elbows at Activision’s long-running juggernaut.

The trailer’s joke lands fast (and loud)

The video dropped yesterday and opens on a squad of celebrities striding toward a firefight like they’re about to headline a Super Bowl spot: Zac Efron, NBA star Jimmy Butler, country singer Morgan Wallen, and MMA fighter Paddy Pimblett. Then a missile instantly wipes them out. Cut to silence, smoke, and a different squad moving in.

These newcomers are not famous faces. They’re plain, realistic Marines. One asks, "who was that?" Another snaps back, "doesn’t matter, let’s move," and the trailer finally gets down to business: coordinated comms, a tank taking a hit, a building coming down. In other words, Battlefield doing the Battlefield thing.

Is that shade at Call of Duty? Come on

Call of Duty never gets name-checked, but you don’t need a decoder ring here. The gag plays like a direct swipe at CoD’s skin catalog, which has turned lobbies into celebrity-crossover chaos. Yes, it’s fun. No, it’s not exactly what you’d call grounded.

• Recent CoD operators/skins have included Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, and even Seth Rogen, plus collabs like The Boys (Homelander, Starlight, Black Noir) and, more recently, Beavis and Butt-Head. Fortnite does this kind of thing too, but CoD’s a military shooter first, brand synergy second... allegedly.

Battlefield’s devs have been clear about their lane

The trailer also lines up perfectly with what the team has been saying for months: keep it grounded, but still let players customize without turning the battlefield into Comic-Con.

"What’s really important to us is that things feel grounded. We want people to express themselves and to have cool skins and peacock in a way like 'I look pretty cool and I have this great weapon skin...' but we want it to feel authentic to the franchise, that’s the approach we’re thinking."

That’s producer Alexia Christofi, and the trailer reads like a mission statement with explosions.

Fans noticed immediately

The replies were basically a victory parade. One viewer called it "the greatest COD diss I’ve seen." Another went with "Fucking shots fired at COD." My favorite kept it simple: "That CoD roast in the beginning was gold."

Rivalries are back, apparently

Weirdly, this isn’t the only shade being tossed around lately. Sega recently needled Mario Kart World in a Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds ad. Game marketing has always loved a little petty drama, but the gloves seem officially off again.

The bigger picture: who wins this face-off?

Both shooters are dropping in close succession over the next couple of months, and the obvious question is which one actually lands with players. Early hands-on impressions claim about three hours with Battlefield 6’s single-player and say it feels like a return to those early-2010s, boots-on-the-ground campaigns. If the full game sticks to that vibe—and this trailer is any indication—Battlefield’s making a pretty loud case for itself before the first match even loads.