Who is Agent 47‘s Love Interest?
As one of gaming‘s most iconic assassins, the Hitman Codename 47 does not have a single confirmed canonical romantic love interest across the expansive Hitman universe. With over 20 years of lore across games, books, and film, developer IO Interactive has consciously chosen to focus 47‘s persona on his detached, emotionally sterile nature – romance simply doesn‘t suit someone engineered to be an efficient killer.
47 Was Created Without Emotional Connections in Mind
As a quick recap, 47 is a clone created by the covert Ort-Meyer project with DNA merging multiple criminal masterminds and assassins. The developers specifically chose to make him bald initially because hair was too complex for early 3D graphics – but it fits with his striking appearance.
Engineered as a specimen for covert assassinations, emotional connections or intimacy were not part of 47‘s design. In fact, one of the few insights into his human side is a bizarre phobia of needles from his early training shown in Absolution.
| Birth Name | Unknown |
|---|---|
| Alias | Tobias Rieper |
| Age | 48 (1964 Romania) |
| Height | 6 ft 2 inches |
| Weight | 187 lbs |
| Nationality | Unknown |
| Clone Template | Multiple criminal masterminds |
Table showing overview of 47‘s specs. Sources: Hitman Wiki; IMDb
With over 17,000 total kills across his multiple shadowy missions, 47 prides himself on being an apex professional assassin "at the top of his game" with uncompromising dedication to the contract. And contracted hits simply don‘t allow for emotional entanglements…or do they?
His Connection With Diana Is Special
Through all the international intrigue, 47‘s main source of human connection is his handler at the International Contract Agency (ICA), Diana Burnwood. As an equally detached and utterly professional English woman, Diana handles mission briefings, provides tactical support in the field, and serves as 47‘s lifeline.
She is one of the few characters to appear consistently across the rebooted trilogy and establish an evolving rapport with our anti-hero. In fact, when 47 quits the ICA in Hitman 2, Diana also disappears – she‘s so closely tied to his work that when he returns for Hitman 3 so does she.
Their tense conversations convey familiarity with each other behind the fiendish global conspiracies they navigate. It‘s clear Diana cares in her own way about 47 based on their shared history in the ICA, making sure he has the tools and information needed to succeed on assignments.
So could there be a clandestine romance behind their dark world of contract killings? Let‘s analyze some evidence to their strange dynamic.
Theories On Diana & 47‘s Romance Provide Intriguing Speculation
Several fans online have analyzed Diana and 47‘s subtle partnership for any hints of realistic romance. And over 20 years, they‘ve suggested some compelling theories:
- Their back-and-forth banter shows subtle signs of mutual care and concern behind the detached professionalism
- Diana goes beyond a handler role with undisclosed support for 47 in his isolation outside missions
- In Hitman Absolution, Diana sustains 47 when he is gravely wounded out of more than duty
- Her disappearance in Hitman 2 when 47 departs the ICA hints she doesn‘t operate without him
- By Hitman 3, their evolving conversations border on affectionate given Diana‘s influence on 47
A user on Reddit even speculates that Diana may have had some hand in influencing 47‘s cloned DNA as the "mother figure" he clearly lacked. But still, most fans concede they do not actually have enough interactions for a romantic arc.
Ultimately Diana Burnwood plays the closest thing to a love interest possible for our barcoded assassin – their subtle connection is likely the most 47 allows himself as a designed killing machine.
Helen McAdams – Undercover Love Interest
The only literal romantic fling 47 has had was with a woman named Helen McAdams during the 2012 Hitman novel Damnation by Raymond Benson. Here, 47 assumes an alias as "Stan Johnson" and goes undercover at an American church, bringing Helen along as part of his fabricated identity. The two play out a surface-level romantic relationship with suburban couple-esque public displays of affection.
But despite Helen clearly conveying affection for the man she believes is Stan, 47 uses this as a pragmatic cover for his infiltration. When hisHITMAN persona inevitably resumes, he abandons their romance showing his core lack of emotional availability. While this undercover identity gave us the only instance of 47 intimate connection, it remained an artificial means to an end.
What His Rare Emotional Displays Do Reveal
Across countless assassinations, Agent 47 keeps up an air of utter professionalism and precision. He approaches each contract as an unemotional challenge full of planning, caution, quick reflexes and no showy gimmicks.
Partly why fans speculate on Diana is that she draws out what little emotion 47 ever displays. Whether concern over her connections to his enemies, or amusement at her wry mission briefings, she elicits subtle human reactions.
We see 47 smirk ever so slightly talking with her in Hitman 3 – a rare sign of sentimentality. In fact the storyline reveals that Diana helped shape 47‘s personality outside of his clone programming during his early ICA training. Her influence impacted who he would become suggesting an indelible bond.
So while he never shows intimacy, 47 has flickers of humanity that come forth through those he has history with – especially Diana.
Similar Emotionless Assassin Characters
As an archetype, Agent 47 fits the classification of the detached assassin fueled by silent professionalism. Other popular media examples with such emotionally sterile killer protagonists include:
- Anton Chigurh (No Country For Old Men)
- The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood western films)
- Léon Montana (Léon the Professional)
- Eldon Tyrell (Blade Runner)
Like these iconically stone-faced killers, 47 demonstrates utter dedication towards death-dealing. He embodies the philosophy that emotions get in the way of carrying out a contract properly. And for 47, anything less than textbook perfection on an assignment is failure.
Yet glimmers of his psychological burdens from being a clone made solely for murder occasionally manifest usually with Diana involved. In the end, he remains driven by a profound emptiness as his masters intended – making romantic connections implausible.
Final Thoughts – An Emotional Connection Could Compromise the Hitman
Agent 47‘s developers have made clear that as a genetically designed clone handler, emotional intimacy plays no role in his purpose. Between the obscured childhood of endless training, and his reputation for being the apex assassin, he is mentally just not wired for genuine human attachment.
But his subtle dynamic with handler Diana Burnwood over many years offers speculation about suppressed sentiments between them. Her guidance supports his missions, and she influences the parts of his personality that counter his sterile programming.
Ultimately 47 exists without need for romantic love or sexual desire given his origins; those components were actively omitted from his cloning. While a surface-level pretense of it briefly plays into his undercover identity, real intimacy seems incompatible with his function. At his core, Agent 47 lives for the ever-greater challenges of his unknown contractors and being the best shadowy killer.
