It has almost been an entire year since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare debuted for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. We're on the verge of the next entry in the first-person shooter series. In fact, an official reveal is expected sometime soon. The next installment will be handled by Treyarch, which typically is the studio that includes a zombies mode in the Call of Duty games.
However, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have both tried their hand at zombies over the years. The former studio apparently even considered including a zombies mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the most recent and currently relevant installment.
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward was aiming for it to be the most realistic installment yet. That's why they didn't follow through with including a zombies mode. Nonetheless, concept art for this mode exists and an artist responsible for such a piece recently shared one. It's clear that the zombies mode would have maintained the realistic aesthetic.
Infinity Ward concept artist Aaron Beck explains (via Charlie INTEL):
"Finally got clearance to share more art from Modern Warfare! So to begin here’s an unused concept from early in production. I was thinking it would be fun to play with the classic Call of Duty zombie gameplay, hinting here at some sort of Russian special forces soldier and his duo of quadruped robots, holding captive zombified soldiers by leashes around their necks."