First announced back in May 2022, it wasn’t until Aug. 31, 2022 that renowned YouTuber and internet personality Jacksepticeye (Sean McLoughlin) unveiled the trailer for his latest interactive endeavor: the IRIS Project. On Oct. 31, 2022, Jack live streamed the ‘IRIS Project,’ featuring the much-anticipated return of his fan-favorite alter-ego Chase Brody. On the same day, he released both a shortened version of Chase Brody’s interview (titled ANOMALY FOUND – CHASE BRODY) — which acted as the main story-driven aspect in the almost four-hour-long video — and a follow-up video titled THE IRIS PROJECT (FINALE).
As confirmed by the official ‘IRIS Project’ Twitter account, IRIS (stylized as I.R.I.S) stands for “Inspiring Research of Impossible Sciences.” Rather than strictly serving to promote Jack’s latest project, the account acted as a simulation of the ‘real-life’ I.R.I.S company, posting teasers in the form of unassuming reports and fabricated progress analyses. Now that the ‘IRIS Project’ has aired, Jacksepticeye subscribers are left with one burning question: What is it? It isn’t exactly clear-cut what the four-hour-plus experience means for the future of the channel, but some theories have circulated on Reddit, Twitter and discussion forums, so it seems audiences have a pretty good idea — and so do we.
Who is Antisepticeye/Anti?
As we’ve established, the ‘IRIS Project’ focuses on Jack’s alter-ego known as Chase Brody, who once lived the life of an eager and energetic young vlogger who ran his own site called “Bro Average,” but due to traumatic events, such as a messy divorce and a harrowing custody battle for his children, Chase has since become more of a reserved and fearful recluse. Chase Body debuted in Jacksepticeye’s video ‘Chase Brody – The Jacksepticeye Power Hour.’ Shortly thereafter, his origins and motivations were further explored in a stand-alone video simply titled ‘CHASE.’ However, the bone-chilling finale marked the long-awaited return of another of Jacksepticeye’s alter-egos, who is known to the fanbase as “Antisepticeye” or “Anti.”
Dubbed A.L.T.R. 114209 by the I.R.I.S Foundation, Antisepticeye is the embodiment of real-life Jack’s self-destructive thoughts, which began to spiral in mid-2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Sean took a short hiatus from uploading videos to focus on his mental health. While Jack created Anti on his own, the idea was fan-fueled as the character really resonated with Jack’s subscribers; ever since noting the fandom’s intrigue towards Anti, Jack has since taken the character and added aspects to make it his own. While the inspiration behind Anti lies in Sean’s psyche, the actual Anti character is an internet-virus demon that infects Jack’s mind, often through his weaker alter-egos who are more susceptible to Anti’s influence — hence Chase Brody’s significance.
Anti torments Chase from afar as an abstract force in ‘CHASE,’ but it isn’t until ‘What do you want from me?’ that Anti and Chase meet eye-to-eye, only after Anti murders Chase’s children. Since as early as October 2016, some of Jack’s videos have either mentioned or implemented Anti in one way or another. On Halloween (Oct. 31, 2016), Jack released ‘SAY GOODBYE‘ (stylized with zalgo font), officially confirming Antisepticeye’s arrival. Anti was heavily inspired by fellow YouTuber Markiplier’s evil counterpart, Darkiplier. Much like how Mark canonized Darkiplier in the ‘Who Killed Markiplier‘ series, it appears that through the ‘IRIS Project,’ Jack is also taking a cinematic approach to exploring the characters he’s inadvertently established among his fanbase.
Without giving too much away, Anti is present in the ‘IRIS Project,’ which leads us to an explanation about what the ‘IRIS Project’ entails, but the extent of Anti’s involvement will remain a mystery for those still wishing to watch.
What is the ‘IRIS Project?’
The ‘IRIS Project’ is a four-hour-long interactive livestream experience that aired on Jacksepticeye’s channel on Oct. 31, 2022 (Halloween). The storyline, which is spread across two uploads, follows Chase Brody, who has been apprehended by the I.R.I.S Foundation, an off-the-radar scientific research facility that wishes to interrogate Chase regarding A.L.T.R. 114209 (Anti). There are segments of interactive footage weaved between the clips of Chase’s interview, which beg for audience interaction. During these moments, audiences were able — during the livestream — to use keyboard commands to request letters, numbers or phrases used to solve on-screen puzzles, varying from lock combinations to phone passwords. There were also segments filmed from the perspective of security cameras, whereby the camera position or focus/zoom could also be influenced by keyboard commands to decipher codes, find clues or inspect the environment.
It was implied for a long time by Jacksepticeye’s fans that Chase Brody’s misfortunes were caused by Anti’s influence, so the ‘IRIS Project’ runs with the idea that Anti is still targeting Brody years after an attempt to persuade him to end his life in ‘CHASE.’ Throughout the entirety of the ‘IRIS Project,’ Brody is being interviewed by a nameless I.R.I.S worker who repeatedly questions him about his knowledge of A.L.T.R. 114209 and his civilian background. Brody denies any involvement or prior knowledge of Anti, then appears to be descending into madness. Before the story can progress, the livestream audience (via YouTube live chat function) must solve the riddles/puzzles to move on.
Again, there won’t be any spoilers present, as anyone intrigued by the ‘IRIS Project’ can find all corresponding videos on Jacksepticeye’s channel, although the interactive portion is no longer applicable since the stream has already ended. Essentially, the ‘IRIS Project’ is the amalgamation of Jack’s teasers involving Chase Brody and Antisepticeye, wherein the characters appear to have a ‘final showdown’ of sorts.