A Bandit has his mind reprogrammed in Borderlands 4 (TBA), Gearbox Software
In providing a tease that, if it actually holds true to the final product, would undoubtedly go a long way in helping the franchise push back against its ‘Reddit-tier’ reputation, Borderlands 4 narrative director Sam Winkler has all but outright confirmed that in comparison to its predecessors, the upcoming Gearbox game will feature a drastic reduction in ‘wacky’ writing.
The latest crew of playable characters assemble in Borderlands 4 (TBA), Gearbox Software
Upon its emergence from its Vault during Geoff Keighly’s 2024 entry of The Game Awards, the first trailer for Borderlands 4 took fans slightly by surprise, as it not only introduced players to both the game’s main brand new cast playable characters and its main villain The Timekeeper, but it also revealed that the game will apparently feature a more mature and noticeably less cel-shaded tone than its predecessors.

And while many fans were left scratching their head as to whether the trailer’s more ‘dark and gloomy’ feel was simply a creative decision for the preview or a proper preview of the game’s true identity, thanks to Winkler, they have now received at least some level of confirmation that the upcoming sequel will, at the very least, attempt to present players with a less ‘ironically detached’ and ‘real-world referential’ script than they would have expected.

The Borderlands 4 narrative director and Borderlands 3 co-writer first broached the subject of his next game’s tone by way of a December 16th tweet made to his personal Twitter account.

“Borderlands 4 is our most ambitious game yet,” said Winkler. “In service of that, I’m happy to say I’ve gotten to work with some of the funniest people I know as contract writers. I’ll be retweeting them as they post about it (though not all may still on this site).”
Sam Winkler (@ThatSamWinkler) via Twitter
In response to his tweet, the writer was asked by a fan, “So far every trailer has dropped a more serious/dark vibe. Are we up for dark humor instead of fart jokes this time around?”, to which he affirmed, “Not at liberty to talk much about the content of BL4, but I remain firm in my criticism of BL3‘s overabundance of toilet humor.”
Sam Winkler (@ThatSamWinkler) via Twitter
From there, Winkler was facetiously pressed by another fan as to whether his last tweet meant that “I won’t be able to use the poop poop farty 4000 while doing a mission to clean up porta-potties with my companion skibidi toilet!?!?!?”

Recognizing the joke, the narrative director asserted in turn, “I’m not gonna say there’s no toilets but if the word skibidi ships in the game under my watch I’m gonna cry real tears.”

“[Forbes video game reporter] Paul Tassi joked that we were gonna have a gun called Hawk 2A and a fellow dev asked me if it was real” he further noted, “and I wanted to put my hand down the sink grinder.”
Sam Winkler (@ThatSamWinkler) via Twitter
Ultimately, while very few concrete details regarding Borderlands 4 have been confirmed by either Gearbox or any of their devs, Winkler’s tweets heavily suggest that though it may not completely rid itself of its penchant for ‘lol so random’ humor, the game will at the very least angle away from being a full on ‘meme regurgitation simulator’.

At current, Borderlands 4 has yet to receive an official release date.