Thanos Arrives In Fortnite For Avengers: Infinity War Crossover Mode

As if Fortnite: Battle Royale weren't already popular enough, developer Epic Games has teamed up with Marvel for a crossover event centered around the year's biggest movie, Avengers: Infinity War. To tie in with Season 4's moviemaking theme, the villain of Marvel's superhero blockbuster, Thanos, will make a surprise appearance in the free-to-play battle royale game on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and iOS (via Entertainment Weekly). Just don't expect any skins.

The crossover takes the form of a limited-time event called the Infinity Gauntlet Mashup, which kicks off tomorrow, May 8. Like a typical game of Battle Royale, it pits 100 players against each other in a fight to be the last one standing, with one significant wrinkle: the Infinity Gauntlet will appear as a weapon.

During the match, the Infinity Gauntlet--equipped with all six Infinity Stones--will spawn somewhere on the map. The player who manages to find and equip it will transform into Thanos, which, according to EW, grants them "all the power that comes with him." You can see an image of Thanos below.

The Infinity Gauntlet Mashup is the first special event of Season 4, which began last week with the release of Fortnite's latest update. Epic hasn't announced how long the mode will remain in rotation, but previous limited-time events have typically only been available for about a week.

“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 director Joe Russo said of himself and co-director Anthony Russo. "And then we started thinking, how cool would it be to have some kind of Avengers-Fortnite mashup? So we stalked Donald [Mustard, Epic Games creative director]."

Mustard told EW, "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. 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."

Along with the start of a new season, last week's update made some significant changes to Battle Royale. The mysterious comet that had been looming in the sky finally crashed over Dusty Depot, turning it into Dusty Divot. Epic also recently vaulted another weapon; this time, the crossbow was removed from the game. Additionally, with Season 4 now underway, Battle Royale players have a new set of skins and rewards to earn by completing new Battle Pass challenges.