This week, rumors started to spread based on leaks and inside info that Darth Vader and Indiana Jones are coming to Fortnite next season, probably with a few other Lucasfilm characters in tow.
It feels like something has changed in Fortnite, where once these crossovers were big news every time they happened, now there have been so many across such a massive range of IPs, that I wonder if Fortnite still has all that many properties to recruit that would truly feel “surprising” at this point. As of now, it feels like the game has reached a point where it’s less “Wow Darth Vader in Fortnite!” to “Oh I figured Darth Vader was probably already in Fortnite by now.”
Fortnite has gone hard on licensed crossover deals, mainly for fictional characters but on occasion, real celebrities when it suits them. By far, they have gone deep into the superhero genre, and we have dozens and dozens of Marvel and DC heroes at this point. Between those two and Star Wars, when a new movie or show from those universes is about to premiere, it feels like practically a guarantee that a Fortnite crossover is following. Darth Vader, for instance, is likely to arrive when Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney Plus, no doubt with Obi-Wan himself showing up too. Before that it was Boba Fett and The Mandalorian for their respective series.
We are running out of major Marvel heroes to even bring to the game. I’d expect Scarlet Witch to join Doctor Strange when Multiverse of Madness gets closer. It seems obvious the rest of the JLA will fill out eventually and we’ll get Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and a few of the other final missing members down the road.
But this is my point, in that I am wondering what crossovers the game could do that would be as attention-grabbing as all these used to be. I keep thinking of the meme about Smash Bros. introducing Goku, and I can see Fortnite getting DBZ/Goku skins being a big thing, and certainly in the realm of possibility now that we’ve seen that Fortnite can do anime style skins well, and they’ve already done Naruto.
I think Fortnite will continue trying to lean hard into getting more and more real-life celebrities into their version of the metaverse. I recently saw Donald Mustard raving about Billie Eilish, so a skin/concert from her could be in the cards in the future. Lady Gaga was rumored for a long while and I think aborted because of the pandemic. But in a world where Lebron James and Arianna Grande are already Fortnite skins, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say practically anyone is on the table, and we could have Taylor Swift or BTS skins down the road. Sometimes those lines get blurred with fictional likenesses. Technically we already have Tom Holland, Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Keanu Reeves and Will Smith (pre-slap) skins, based on Spider-Man/Dune/John Wick/Bad Boys.
I do think Fortnite has run out of truly impressive or shocking superheroes to add. All the big guns are there, pretty much. I do expect them to get around to all the major Star Wars characters eventually. I wonder if they’d dare to touch Harry Potter at this point, given all the controversy surrounding it, but that’s another mega franchise to consider. If Game of Thrones was still airing, I’d expect we’d already have Khaleesi and Jon Snow skins running around, but perhaps the ship has sailed on that.
Fortnite is going to keep building and building this collection, and someday, is going to evolve far past its battle royale roots and do something else entirely with all these skins. Mark my words.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
