Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet are coming to Fortnite tomorrow

We know what you’re thinking, how the hell is Marvel’s big purple baddie, Thanos, coming to the popular battle royale game, Fortnite? Well, after the huge success of Avengers: Infinity War at the end of April, it seemed like a no-brainer to merge what is well on its way to being the biggest movie of all-time with the hottest game on the market.

This limited time event will NOT be in the form of any permanent skins, it will simply shake-up the standard 100 person battle royale. The match will be almost exactly the same aside from one massive game changer, the Infinity Gauntlet loaded up with all six Infinity Stones will be on the map. If you aren’t super well versed with Marvel lore, when the Gauntlet is armed with all six stones (which control time, reality, and much more), is the most powerful tool in the entire universe. At a snap of a finger, it has the ability to wipe out half of the entire universe.

The being that wields it is known as the Mad Titan, Thanos. He’s a massive, hulking purple alien with incredible strength and high intelligence. If players find and equip the Gauntlet, they will transform into Thanos himself. Now, we’re not entirely sure just how easy it will be to obtain it or how powerful the Gauntlet is in the context of the game but you will definitely have a significant advantage if you have it. Epic Games runs the risk of making it too OP but maybe that’ll be part of the fun, maybe we’ll see all 99 other players team up to take down Thanos while also being vulnerable to the other players.

As for how this unexpected crossover came to be, Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo talked about how the game consumed them during their breaks while editing the massive superhero blockbuster.

“Over the past few months, while we were editing Infinity War, we’d take breaks to hop on and get in a few games,” Joe Russo told EW. “And then we started thinking, how cool would it be to have some kind of Avengers–Fortnite mashup? So we stalked Donald [Mustard, creative director at Epic Games].”

The crossover was unexpected for both players and the creators of the game according to Mustard.

“Out of the blue, I get this call from Joe. And after a bit of geeking out over each other’s work, we start brainstorming these crazy ideas,” Mustard recalled. “It was really important that whatever we did, it had to be super authentic to both Fortnite and the Avengers: Infinity War, and something that fans of both would be excited about. About an hour later, we had the bones of this awesome idea for a limited time gameplay mode, and almost immediately our team got started.”

Mustard added that they’re really happy they got to work with Marvel on this update and are super fond of their work.

“Infinity War blew us away, and the Russos, [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige, and the whole team at Marvel have been incredible to work with. This kind of opportunity, where you have this mutual respect for someone’s work and you’re on the same page about doing something cool for fans, is rare and really exciting. We hope players love it.”

The Thanos/Infinity Gauntlet update will drop into Fortnite tomorrow on all platforms including iOS. You can check out our glowing review of Avengers: Infinity War by clicking here.