In 2018, as part of the promotion for Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos was added to Fortnite, complete with the Infinity Gauntlet and some dance moves that would make John Travolta blush. But it may not have ever happened if Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo hadn’t directly lobbied Epic Games to bring Thanos into the world of Fortnite.
During The Game Business Live, Pete Wanat–the president of interactive technology for the Russos’ AGBO–revealed that Epic’s former chief creative officer, Donald Mustard, wasn’t initially on board with having Thanos in Fortnite. That’s why Anthony and Joe Russo spent hours convincing him go forward with it.
“Originally it was like, ‘No, we are not interested in putting outside characters into Fortnite,'” recalled Wanat. “And Joe and Anthony got together and had a phone call with Donald. It was supposed to be a half-hour call, but five-and-a-half hours later, they were still talking about it. And Donald basically changed his mind. He said, ‘Hey, you know what, we’re going to do this.’ And after that, the world exploded about what kind of integrations you could have between film and TV and games.”
Mustard ultimately went on to work directly for the Russos at AGBO, while dancing Thanos became a meme that confused his MCU actor, Josh Brolin.
Once Thanos paved the way for outside characters to appear in Fortnite, it opened the floodgates. A John Wick skin followed the next year, and the trend continued this year with a Darth Vader who can speak with the AI-generated voice of the late James Earl Jones.
Starting Friday, June 13, Hank Hill from King of the Hill, Cleveland Brown from Family Guy, and Bob Belcher from Bob’s Burgers will all be added to Fortnite for Father’s Day.
