FortniteChapter 2, Season 4 has been one big love letter to the Marvel Comics universe, with players able to unlock skins for characters like Thor and Doctor Doom, or evenpurchase paraphernalia for characters like Silver Surfer, as they explore an increasing number of iconic locales. However, a Tweet by the battle royale led to “Jarvis” trending for a more interesting reason.
As a promotion for its “Nexus War” content,Fortnitereferenced the artificial intelligence system J.A.R.V.I.S., voiced by Paul Bettany, that assists Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before becoming Vision inAvengers: Age of Ultron(2015). However, many fans have turned the reference into a comment about esports player and FaZe Clan memberJarvis Kaye, who was banned fromFortnitefor lifein 2019 after using an aimbot during casual matches.
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During its height, people talking about Jarvis on social media became a cyclical loop of comments asking Epic Games to unban Kaye as others tried to dissuade these notions by reminding everyone the Tweet was referencing an A.I., itself based on comic character Edwin Jarvis. The Stark family butler also appears in the MCU, portrayed byJames D’Arcy in the TV showAgent Carterand inAvengers: Endgame(2019).
Though the content being added into Epic Games' battle royale is not related to the MCU directly, being based on its own mostly original conflict between the Avengers and Galactus, the developer has included other references to the movie canon. For example, aBlack Panther monument was added toFortnite’s mapshortly after news came out about the death of actor Chadwick Boseman.
It’s unlikely that Epic Games meant to cause a stir by referencing a character who happens to share its name with a streamer that has a contentious history with the game, but this kind of viral marketing is no doubt a boon forFortnite. Kaye seemed to agree, as he got in on the joke by quote TweetingFortnite’s post to say, “Next time @ me.”
GivenFortnite’s Season 4 just began, there’s a good chance the game will continue to garner attention on social media as it adds more content related to popular Marvel Comics characters. A recent leak has suggested thatFortnitewill add an Ant-Man area to its map, much like it recently incorporated the Black Panther statue.
Fortniteis free-to-play for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions in development.
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