The end of Avengers: Infinity War promised that “Thanos will return,” but who knew it would happen so quickly and in such a surprising way because the Mad Titan is impossibly making his way into Fortnite: Battle Royale. It’s basically the newest most ambitious crossover event in history.
On Monday morning, Fortnite developer Epic Games tweeted out a curious tease for some kind of mashup with Avengers: Infinity War. Further details from Entertainment Weekly confirmed that an “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” mode for Fortnite: Battle Royale was coming. The new game mode functions like the usual battle royale, but there’s a single Infinity Gauntlet hidden somewhere on the map, and it transforms the player into Thanos with all the might of the Infinity Stones. Fortnite’s superhero-themed Season 4 kicking off just after Infinity War’s release now makes a lot more sense. This crossover has been part of the plan all along.
“Whomsoever finds and equips [the Infinity Gauntlet] will transform into Thanos himself, wielding all the power that comes with him,” EW writes. Does that mean you’ll be able to do the infamous Snap? Can you hurl moons at people? Alter reality? Make guns shoot bubbles instead?
“Over the past few months, while we were editing Infinity War, we’d take breaks to hop on and get in a few games,” Infinity War co-director Joe Russo told EW. “And then we started thinking, how cool would it be to have some kind of Avengers–Fortnite mashup?” Much like rapper Drake, the Russos are huge fans of the game. Together with Donald Mustard, the creative director at Epic Games, Joe and his brother Anthony developed the game mode to celebrate both franchises.
“It was really important that whatever we did,” Mustard said, “it had to be super authentic to both Fortnite and the Avengers: Infinity War, and something that fans of both would be excited about.”
This isn’t the only video game that references the worldwide phenomenon that is Avengers: Infinity War. The recently-released God of War also has an in-game item that lets players wield the power of Thanos and his Gauntlet, but it’s unclear if it was an official tie-in or just a fun Easter egg. This Fortnite-Infinity War crossover, however, is a straight-up collaboration.
“Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup” will be available starting May 8 for a limited time. There’s no telling what Thanos will be capable of in Fortnite, but if he can beat up the Hulk in Avengers: Infinity War, then a bunch of puny humans with regular guns should be no match for him.
