I found a poster in one of the Shadows of Evil screenshots which might reveal "Nero's" surname - Blackstone.       Nero Blackstone https://www.callofduty.com/blackops3/zombies Set in a fictional 1940s city, Shadows of Evil is a film-noir-inspired horror story centered around four particularly troubled individuals – the Femme Fatale, the Magician, the Cop and the Boxer – and spans an entire metropolis swathed in evil… Welcome to Morg City.
Each of the four characters awaken to a nightmarish world overrun by the undead. Each character fights to overcome confusion and amnesia – in the hope that they may piece together the events that brought them to this twisted world.   Shadows of Evil introduces players to the Femme Fatal, the Magician, the Cop and the Boxer – and these are not nice people. Every one of them is a lying, conniving, manipulative and selfish individual with a long and sordid history of past misdeeds.   The Magician played by Jeff Goldblum Born into enormous wealth, the magician grew up surrounded by lackeys and sycophants… and a lifetime of constant praise and attention has only fueled his deeply misplaced arrogance.           And this is the image in which a found this poster ~   Zoomed in & enhanced so I could read the text ~   Text on poster ~     Credit to MixMasterNut for this find.   The inspiration for Nero Blackstone possibly comes from this man ~ Harry Blackstone, Sr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Blackstone,_Sr. Harry Blackstone (September 27, 1885 – November 16, 1965) was a famed stage magician and illusionist of the 20th century. Blackstone was born Harry Bouton in Chicago, Illinois, he began his career as a magician in his teens and was popular through World War II as a USO entertainer. He was often billed as The Great Blackstone. His son Harry Blackstone, Jr. also became a famous magician. Blackstone was in the model of courtly, elegant predecessor magicians like Howard Thurston and Harry Kellar, and the last of that breed in America. He customarily wore white tie and tails when performing, and he traveled with large illusions and a sizable cast of uniformed male and female assistants. For a number of years he toured in the Midwest, often performing throughout the day between film showings.     His "Sawing a woman in half" involved an electric circular saw some three to four feet in diameter mounted on a swing-down arm. Blackstone demonstrated the efficacy of the device by sawing noisily through a piece of lumber. Then a female assistant was placed on the saw table in full view, as wide metal restraints were clamped upon her midsection. The blade whirred and appeared to pass through her body, as ripping sounds were heard, the woman shrieked, and particles were scattered by the whirring blade. When the blade stopped she, of course, rose unharmed.       In a gentler turn was his "Vanishing bird cage," an effect in which a score or more of children were invited to join him on the stage and all "put their hands on" a tiny cage holding a canary. Blackstone lowered the cage and then seemed to toss it into the air: bird and cage "disappearing" in the process to the astonishment and delight of the surprised children.     Preserving History, Harry Blackstone Poster, Part 1   Preserving History, Harry Blackstone Poster, Part 2    Preserving History, Harry Blackstone Poster, Part 3  At 0:55 he tells the story about the "Devil sitting on his shoulder whispering into his ear".  Which is now seen in so many posters.   Harry Kellar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Kellar       Blackstone, the Magic Detective https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone,_the_Magic_Detective Books carrying Harry Blackstone's byline were ghostwritten for him by his friend, Walter B. Gibson, who also created, in 1941, the comic book Blackstone the Magician Detective and the 1948-49 radio series, Blackstone, the Magic Detective. Blackstone, the Magic Detective was a 15-minute radio series which had a tie-in with several comic books. The program aired Sunday afternoons at 2:45pm on the Mutual Broadcasting System from October 3, 1948, until March 26, 1950. Gibson also created EC Comics' Blackstone the Magician Detective Fights Crime in 1947. The comic book series continued as Timely Comics' Blackstone the Magician (#2) and Blackstone the Magician Detective (#3, #4). The character of Rhoda Brent, Blackstone's assistant in the comics, was carried over into the radio series.     Walter B. Gibson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_B._Gibson Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897 – December 6, 1985) was an American author and professional magician, best known for his work on the pulp fiction character The Shadow. Gibson, under the pen-name Maxwell Grant, wrote "more than 300 novel-length" Shadow stories, writing up to "10,000 words a day" to satisfy public demand during the character's golden age in the 1930s and 1940s. Gibson wrote more than a hundred books on magic, psychic phenomena, true crime, mysteries, rope knots, yoga, hypnotism, and games. He served as a ghost writer for books on magic and spiritualism by Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and Joseph Dunninger. Gibson wrote the comic books and radio drama Blackstone, the Magic Detective. starring a fictionalized version of Harry Blackstone.   The Shadow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in 1930s pulp novels, and then in a wide variety of media. Details of the title character have varied across various media, but he is generally depicted as a crime-fighting vigilante with psychic powers posing as a "wealthy, young man about town". One of the most famous adventure heroes of the twentieth century, The Shadow has been featured on the radio, in a long-running pulp magazine series, in comic books, comic strips, television, serials, video games, and at least five motion pictures. Gibson initially fashioned the character as a man with villainous characteristics, who used them to battle crime, and in this was archetypal of the superhero, complete with a stylized imagery, a stylized name, sidekicks, supervillains, and a secret identity. Clad in black, The Shadow operated mainly after dark, burglarizing in the name of justice, and terrifying criminals into vulnerability before he or someone else gunned them down. The character was a film noir antihero in every sense; Gibson himself claimed the literary inspirations were Bram Stoker's Dracula and Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "The House and the Brain".   Harry Dresden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dresden Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a fictional detective and wizard. He was created by Jim Butcher and is the protagonist of the contemporary fantasy series The Dresden Files. The series blends magic and hardboiled detective fiction. In addition to the fifteen The Dresden Files novels, he has appeared in fifteen short stories, as well as a limited series comic and an unlimited series comic. He was also adapted into a character by the same name for the TV series version of the novel series, also called The Dresden Files. Harry Dresden is a wizard who works as a supernatural private investigator in Chicago, dealing with paranormal crimes and consulting for the Chicago Police Department. He is named after three different stage magicians — Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and David Copperfield. Deviantart     So I went completely down a rabbit hole here and it's kind of off-topic from what I imagine the game will be about. But I'm pretty confident all of these spun off characters are the inspiration for NERO BLACKSTONE!     Edit ~ Going to add this Mob of the Dead quote from Al 'Weasel' Arlington -       The quote is titled - vox_plr_3_wpck_snipe_d_3 (This refers to getting a sniper rifle from the mystery box)   And we know what happens when you get a Sniper Rifle & look through the scope on the roof -     ==============================     In-Game poster & Magician's Weekly Magazine Cover   To my surprise, it is not there and the room has been slightly changed since that promo pic. I was very disappointed as I thought they had completely removed Nero's surname due to copyright or defamation reasons and this poster would not exist at all.   But, It is found within the Subway rift, still, the surname has been removed. But it is the same poster.     Also found in the Footlight District around the Newspaper stand are copies of "Magician's Weekly", which have the name "Nero Blackstone" on the cover. (FINALLY - CONFIRMED!!!) This magazine cover is in the Prologue video but again, the cover is different & it just says "Nero's career up in smoke".   Here are the Screenshots taken from in-game.