A rumor tore through the Destiny community this week claiming Luke Smith was coming back to Bungie to lead Destiny 3 development. It's not true. The whole thing started from a misinterpreted clip from Aztecross, one of the Destiny community's largest content creators with over a million YouTube subscribers, and both he and journalist Paul Tassi have since shut it down.
But the full story is worth unpacking, because it says a lot about where the Destiny community's head is right now.
Where the Rumor Started
About two weeks ago, Aztecross pushed back against a viewer who claimed Marathon's success would spell the end for Destiny. He argued the two games are handled by separate teams, then went further. Some of Marathon's lead designers, he said, had already transitioned back to Destiny development.
He described these developers as "top of the food chain" talent and claimed he'd personally spoken with individuals who made the move. With Marathon's development wrapped up ahead of its launch, key personnel shifting to other Bungie projects made logical sense. A dedicated live team would handle Marathon's ongoing support.
Then came the line that sparked everything. Aztecross said one of these returning developers was "one of the lead designers for Vault of Glass, actually, the lead."
How It Snowballed
Other content creators watching the stream latched onto the Vault of Glass reference and immediately connected it to Luke Smith. The reasoning wasn't entirely baseless. Smith was widely recognized as the lead designer on Vault of Glass during Destiny 1. He later served as game director for Destiny 2 through 2023 and played a major role in fan-favorite content like The Taken King expansion.
From there, speculation ran wild. Destiny 3 had reportedly entered very early development around November of last year. If Luke Smith was returning to Bungie, maybe he was coming back to head up the next mainline installment. The narrative spread fast across Reddit, forums, and social media, driven by a player base starving for any concrete news about the franchise's future.
Aztecross Sets the Record Straight
In a follow-up video, Aztecross didn't mince words. He was not talking about Luke Smith.
The logical flaw should've been obvious from the start, he said. Luke Smith never worked on Marathon. Aztecross had specifically described a developer transitioning from Marathon back to Destiny. That alone rules Smith out entirely.
Aztecross acknowledged Smith's contributions to Vault of Glass but stressed he was referring to a different veteran, someone he called "the mind pretty much behind Vault of Glass" who came from Bungie's Halo development days. This individual worked on Marathon content and has now returned to Destiny. Aztecross wouldn't name them directly, saying he didn't feel it was his right to do so.
He was even more direct about the Destiny 3 angle. He has zero information about D3 being in development at any stage.
The real signs of a Destiny 3 entering active production, he argued, would be Bungie going on a visible hiring spree and former key figures publicly returning to the studio. Neither has happened.
Tassi's Investigation
Paul Tassi independently looked into the rumor and found nothing to support it. There's zero internal indication that Luke Smith is returning to Bungie, he reported. The Luke Smith interpretation doesn't hold up logically either, since the original discussion was explicitly about developers moving from Marathon to Destiny.
Tassi also noted that Aztecross himself was confused about how the whole Luke Smith narrative had taken off.
Going further, Tassi said he knows who the actual developer is and believes the transition back to Destiny already happened a while ago. Without naming them, he described the person as someone who worked on Marathon's "raid-like" final level, the Cryo Archive, on the ship itself. That experience tracks with their previous Vault of Glass work. What they're currently doing within Destiny is unknown.
Luke Smith's Current Status
Nobody seems to know. Smith left Bungie in August 2024 following The Final Shape expansion, alongside other veterans like Mark Noseworthy. He has no visible social media presence and nothing public on LinkedIn. Neither Tassi nor Aztecross have any information about his current activities.
Before his departure, Smith had been one of Bungie's most prominent figures. Beyond Vault of Glass, he directed The Taken King and oversaw Destiny 2's direction through 2023. His era included some controversial decisions too, but his overall impact on the franchise is hard to overstate.
There's also the cancelled Destiny spin-off to consider. Before Bungie's layoffs and restructuring, a project codenamed Payback was in the works, and Smith may have been involved alongside Noseworthy. According to Jason Schreier's sources, Payback would have been a major departure from the standard Destiny formula. It reportedly swapped first-person gameplay for third-person combat and exploration, drew inspiration from Warframe and Genshin Impact, and would have let players use existing Destiny characters to explore a large open world. The project was ultimately cancelled, with many developers laid off or departing Bungie.
Destiny 3 Rumor Status
Destiny 3 remains firmly in the realm of speculation. Some rumors place a third mainline title in very early development stages starting around November of last year, which would mean preliminary concept discussions, early art direction, and high-level planning at most. But no one with credible sources has confirmed that D3 is actually in production.
Tassi called D3 "always wishful thinking" at this point, describing the current rumors as suggesting the project is in "extremely early stages, if that." There is no plan to bring Luke Smith back to lead it.
The community's willingness to latch onto any D3 signal reflects just how frustrated players are with Destiny 2's current state. Aztecross summed it up bluntly: the Destiny community is "so hungry" for something to hold onto that players will build entire narratives from vague statements. Right now, Destiny 3 is nothing more than unconfirmed speculation.
Guardian Games Leaks
While the Luke Smith rumor dominated the conversation, a few actual Destiny 2 developments slipped through.
Dataminers have pulled Guardian Games information from Destiny 2's latest update. The data is visible on community sites like Ishtar Collective and Light.gg. Last year's Guardian Games ran in early March, but this year's event will likely be pushed back. The probable cause is Shadow and Order, the next major Destiny 2 update, which was originally scheduled for March but is now rumored to be delayed. Marathon's March 5th launch date likely factors into that timing as well.
The leaked items include a shader pack and a skimmer bundle containing a skimmer, shader, and emote. Three new class-specific armor sets also appeared in the files, tagged with the line: "Unleash your inner beast." Hunters get the Cape Cobra set, Titans receive Panthera Leo, and Warlocks pick up Crowned Eagle.
No gameplay details have surfaced yet. The event will likely function similarly to last year's version, adapted for the Year of Prophecy event structure. Guardian Games appeared on the original roadmap Bungie released back in December, alongside the Renegades expansion and Shadow and Order.
Iron Banner Absence
Iron Banner's extended absence has become a growing sore point. A Reddit post recently surfaced referencing a Facebook comment, reportedly from Bungie or the official Destiny 2 account, stating that Iron Banner will return "later in 2026." That claim hasn't been independently verified.
Players have been asking about the PvP event for weeks, and the game files do contain at least one new Iron Banner weapon. So the event hasn't been scrapped entirely. But why it's been gone so long remains unclear.
Possible reasons range from development resources being funneled toward Shadow and Order and future content within the Fate Saga (the second saga of the Destiny Universe, which kicked off with Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate) to technical complications with fitting Iron Banner into the current event format.
The last time Iron Banner ran was during the Destiny 2: Ash & Iron update on September 9, 2025, part of Season: Reclamation in Year 8. That's a significant gap for an event that's been a Destiny staple since the franchise's earliest days. Players want it back, and one appearance per season clearly isn't cutting it.
What Comes Next
The Destiny community is in a rough spot. No active roadmap. Shadow and Order's timing is up in the air. Iron Banner is nowhere to be found. And the franchise's long-term direction remains a complete unknown.
The Luke Smith rumor, baseless as it turned out, is a clear symptom of a player base grasping for any sign that things will improve. As Tassi put it, this was "a statement on an old video that was misinterpreted, spread widely and quickly, and ultimately turned into fantasizing about a project that doesn't exist, made by a man who is not returning to work at Bungie."
Bungie is expected to share more information about Destiny 2's direction sometime this month. Until then, the community waits.
