Fortnite – A Somewhat Brief History of Collaborations

Last Updated on: 16th March 2021, 06:43 am

This season of Fortnite could be called a lot of things besides just Season 5. A giant advertisement, Zero Point or maybe more appropriately Season of Collabs. Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 has brought us the largest variety of skins we’ve seen in a single season, with all of these Fortnite collaborations specifically.

From the hunters from other dimensions Fortnite created themselves to the crazy collaborations we’ve seen across video game series, movie franchises and more; Fortnite has had collaborations in plenty of seasons before this as well, which only prepared the stage for everything that followed.

Each different genre of outfits and their respective sets get put into a general set such as Star Wars Series, Marvel Series, DC Series, musicians, movie, television and other franchises.

Each set is also represented by its own color, that no other set will share with it.

Various collaborations this season have been given an accompanying Portal at different locations on the island, giving players a glimpse into the world that character came from.

Let’s go over everything cool, interesting and just strange.

Previous and Current Fortnite Collaborations

Previously, we’ve gotten collaborations in Fortnite from movie franchises like Star Wars and John Wick but also characters from comic book franchises such as Batman and Deadpool.

Previously, these collaborations would be much more occasional than they are now, never appearing in the shop at the same time as each other. Things have been much different this season however.

This current season, which came immediately after the Marvel event which was loaded with the biggest single collaboration to date, is already become even more of a collaboration event than previous Marvel events.

Every skin included with the battle pass was a Marvel character and every other item included was Marvel as well.

READ MORE: Fortnite: Could Neymar be coming to Season 6?

Star Wars: The Rise of Fortnite Collaborations

Star Wars first collaborated in Fortnite with a one-of-a-kind event where director of Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, J.J. Abrams shared a clip of the upcoming movie.

This event gave players the chance to feel like they were up close and personal with the director of the film, as well as weird lightsabers for the first time. Lightsabers would later get added to a regular pool of weapons in battle royale modes. However, they were only available in certain chests.

Other Star Wars collaborations included the Imperial Trooper skin release alongside the release of Jedi Fallen Order on the Epic Games Store.

Since these previously mentioned Star Wars collaborations, we’ve also gotten a Millennium Falcon glider from a Christmas event, The Mandolorian is currently included in the Season 5 battle pass as well as The Child backbling and so much more.

Since the beginning of Season 5, you’ve been able to encounter The Mandalorian near his crashed ship, Razor Crest, where he will instantly try to eliminate you. Eliminating The Mandalorian will cause him to drop his jetpack and his unique Amban Sniper Rifle.

Also, midway through this current season they have dropped a new POI where the desert meets the woods that turn into Weeping Woods called Kit’s Catana where you can also find The Mandalorian as he tends to explore.

I expect the Star Wars collaborations to continue over time as there’s still so much that can be done.

Marvel is The Largest Fortnite Collaboration Yet

The Marvel skins have been coming into Fortnite for a good bit now with skins such as Black Widow, Star-Lord and even the inclusion of Deadpool as the secret skin in Season 2 of Chapter 2.

When Deadpool came to Fortnite, there was an entire takeover with Deadpool’s face being plastered all over the island and even his own yacht!

Thanos, wielding the Infinity Gauntlet was also an LTM within Fortnite for a limited time a few years ago. And while this event didn’t last long, it officially added the first Mythic rarity weapon to the island.

However, even larger than those events was the Marvel Avengers event which was an entire season which even gave a purpose and reason for the Marvel characters appearance in Fortnite.

While that event was massive, as it gave us the Avengers weapons on the island, with Season 4 we got literally everything Marvel.

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We got all Marvel skins and all other cosmetics and other items from the battle pass were also all Marvel themed.

While keeping up with the tradition of Bosses and Hideouts of the previous season, this season also added Villains and Heroes as Bosses to hideouts.

In doing so, you could eliminate that Hero or Villain and take their exclusive weapons as well as their keycard for even more loot such as Iron Man as Stark Industries or Doctor Doom at Doom’s Domain.

At the time of this writing they were still adding new Marvel skins into the Item Shop to purchase with real money or V-Bucks, with Ant Man making his highly anticipated arrival as well as the Marvel: Royalty & Warriors Pack.

Included in Marvel: Royalty & Warriors Pack are 3 Marvel characters: Taskmaster, Black Panther and Captain Marvel.

Also included with these 3 skins are 3 back blings, 3 pickaxes and 2 gliders but requires a real money purchase of $24.99 USD.

This bundle can be found in the Limited Time tab in the Item Shop located next to this season’s Starter Pack, Diamond Diva.

Also next to this you will find our next subject of Fortnite collaborations: DC Comics.

DC Comics Fortnite Collaborations Always Pop Up When Least Expected

Currently in the Item Shop, and for quite some time now, there has been a DC/Fortnite collaborative pack called The Last Laugh Bundle that includes The Joker and Poison Ivy from DC and the most recent variant of Midas called Midas Rex.

Each skin included in this bundle has a variant as well as plenty of other cosmetic and 1,000 V-Bucks. The additional cosmetics include with these skins are 4 pickaxes, 3 back blings and 1 contrail.

This will also cost you real money at a cost of $29.99 USD but with V-Bucks alone costing $8 USD, this is a pretty good deal for all that’s included.

Most recently from DC however, we’ve gotten The Flash Bundle which was based on The CW show of the same name. Included in The Flash Bundle is The Flash outfit, a loading screen, dual pickaxes and the Quick Bite emote.

Also from DC, for a limited time for Fortnite Crew members, Fortnite released a Green Arrow skin based on a show that exists within the same universe as The Flash.

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The Green Arrow bundle included the skin, a pickaxe and a backbling.

This is the only collaboration we’ve gotten from a Fortnite Crew skin with the rest all being Fortnite originals.

Fortnite has even gotten its own Gotham City point of interest that replaced Titled Towers during Chapter 1.

So many more DC Comics skins have been unleashed upon the Fortnite Island from Aquaman being a secret skin a few seasons back, his nemesis Black Manta, two versions of Batman himself and plenty more.

Not to mention all of the additional cosmetics that come with all of those skins.

Fortnite Collaborations: Gaming Legends Series

Fortnite outfits, back blings, harvesting tools and all other cosmetics that are video game related are added into the Gaming Legends Series tag.

This is a smaller tag compared to the ones mentioned above but these skins are pretty monumental in their own way.

Borderlands

Now the Borderlands collaboration was a very interesting one to me, and I hope we get more collaborations like it soon.

The Borderlands collaboration, the first entry into the Gaming Legends Series, not only included a Psycho skin and a Claptrap backbling but an entire POI straight out of Pandora with the trademark graphics Borderlands fans have grown to love.

The Borderlands set that includes these cosmetics, the Mayhem Set which also has a wrap by the same name that offers a unique gold style wrap to players. This, although included in this set, could be earned from Pandora Challenges during Season X.

Halo

The Halo collaboration was among one of the first collaborations to be added to the current season of Fortnite with the Master Chief, the Lil’ Warthog emote, a backbling and the Gravity Hammer harvesting tool.

Master Chief is also part of the Gaming Legends Series.

This skin, if used in a game on Xbox Series X|S, will unlock the Master Chief Black Matte variant for the skin as well.

Unfortunately, this was all that came with this collaboration but being among the earliest collaborations of the latest season, it was still a shock for users to be able to purchase the Xbox titan on PlayStation.

The next bundle we’re about to go over, as well as this one being an Xbox character, is also part of the Gaming Legends Series. However this next character is part of a different gaming community, PlayStation.

God of War

God of War was another Gaming Legends Series skin that was released this season giving players the opportunity to play Kratos, even on its foreign console: Xbox.

Kratos’ Bundle, the amply named Oathbreaker set, comes with a glider, a backbling and a reactive pickaxe as well as a built-in emote for the God slayer.

Like Master Chief, Kratos also comes with an exclusive variant for playing on the next-gen console, PlayStation 5. The variant you are awarded for playing a game on the next-gen PlayStation is Armored Kratos.

Street Fighter

The newest addition to the Gaming Legends Series were two characters from the famous Street Fighter series: Ryu and Chun-Li. The set of these outfits and the additional cosmetics included with it, are a part of the Street Fighter set.

There is also a separate bundle called the Street Fighter Gear Bundle that includes a glider and 2 harvesting tools from the Street Fighter Bundle. Each Street Fighter skin also features a built-in emote.

TV and Movie Franchise Collaborations

A large portion of the recent Fortnite skins following the Hunter theme this season come from television and movie franchises featuring some of the most famous Hunter and famous franchises in cinematic history.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead collaboration was quite small and came pretty early into the current season of Fortnite as some of the earliest hunters.

The total collaboration brought 2 Walking Dead characters to the island: Daryl Dixon and Michonne via the Suvivors In Arms Bundle. The Survivors In Arms Bundle includes the 2 skins mentioned above, 2 harvesting tools and a backbling.

There is a Walking Dead portal just outside of Weeping Woods.

Stranger Things

While the Stranger Things collaboration was hyped up to be more than it actually was, it was pretty cool to experience what they did do with the island.

The island itself had a mini mall but when the collaboration started they added portals to the mall that would make you enter the Upside Down, giving everything a dark, more malicious vibe and eerie sounds. These portals were very limited and short, so super engaging battles didn’t really happy here.

The Stranger Things Set includes 2 outifts, Hopper and Demogorgon, as well as a wrap.

G.I. Joe

What may be the smallest collaboration this season comes Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe. While it may be small, from a fan’s perspective it was never expected to happen.

Fans of the G.I. Joe franchise were very ecstatic about it, specifically the ability to have Snake Eyes’ Sword as a harvesting tool and Back Bling simultaneously making it much more unique to the character.

John Wick

John Wick is one of the oldest collaborations we’ve gotten in Fortnite.

While this originally came to be because of the likeness between a Fortnite skin by the name of The Reaper and John Wick. Since John Wick 3 has gotten released, one month after this skin was originally released, a Sofia skin was added to the John Wick set.

While collaborations such as Marvel and DC Comics have movies, these skins are mostly based on comic books with a few exceptions here and there.

But these next few collaborations, from Season 5 alone, are specifically from movie franchises and they comes from a few different genres. If there’s one thing Epic Games knows how to do, it’s add variety to something.

Tron

Tron: Legacy was one of the most recent so called “Hunters” to arrive to the island, heavily following this season’s theme.

The End of Line set was an interesting one with 10 different outfits to choose from, as well as an identical backbling and harvesting tool.

Predator

Predator may have been one of the coolest this season, as the character was the only collaboration outside of The Mandalorian that was also a boss with its own unique weapon.

Predator, while only having one unique item, drops a very special tactical piece of equipment. Predator, upon elimination, drops Predator Cloaking Device which you will see him use plenty if you fight him at his location: Stealthy Stronghold. Predator will leap and slash at you while using his stealth ability and leap away just as easily when hurt so he isn’t the easiest to kill.

With the launch of Predator came a set of challenges to unlock the character and other cosmetics as well related to the skin.

Alien

Surprisingly enough, the Alien bundles didn’t launch alongside the Predator skin or recognize Alien as a boss but it did however include 2 outfits from the franchise: Xenomorph and Ellen Ripley.

These outfits along with an emote, a glider, 2 back blings, a harvesting tool and a loading screen make up the In Space… set.

Will Terminator Fortnite Collaborations Be Back?

Terminator is another movie franchise added to the island this season with its own Portal near Steamy Stacks. The Terminator entered the island with another skin as well: Sarah Connor. The Sarah Connor outfit comes with 2 variants while T-800, the more popular skin from Terminator only has one.

Overall the Future War set comes with the 2 outfits mentioned above as well as 2 harvesting tools, 2 Back Blings and an emote that had a bit of controversy when it came out for no being included with T-800 as a built-in emote.

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters was another cool and unique set to collaborations to come to Fortnite from a movie franchise.

This collaboration gave players the options of 10 different outfits to pick from as well as 2 Back Blings, a Glider and a Harvesting Tool. There was also a bundle that could be purchased called Ghostbusters Crew that included 5 outfits total.

Musician Collaborations

We’ve even gotten musicians to bring their own level of heat to the Fortnite island through events and skin bundles for players to enjoy.

Marshmello

Mashmello posters started to appear in Season 7 and then eventually this led to the first live in-game concert performed by the artist. During the event players were jumping around as if low gravity was enabled. The concert happened two days in a row.

Marshmello also has his own set with cosmetics named after the artist. The Marshmello Set features the Marshmello Outfit, 2 Emotes featuring music by the artist, a loading screen, 2 Harvesting Tools, a Spray and a Glider.

The glider plays a Marshmello beat as well as the harvesting tools when striking something.

These items either have to be purchases with the Marshmello Bundle or were rewards from the Showtime Challenges that were released prior to the Marshmello concert.

J. Balvin

The J. Balvin concert in Fortnite happened on the newer, more friendly battle royale mode: Party Royale.

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The collaboration with this artist was small but on top the concert, players also had to opportunity to acquire a J. Balvin variant of the Party Trooper skin by watching the artist’s Fortnitemares Afterparty Event.

Party Royale is a party game and event oriented mode that was added to Fortnite for players that just wanted to hangout with friends and play games together outside of the usual game modes. Players can do things like use toys such as footballs, emote freely and enjoy music and concerts.

This island is covered with beautiful structures, like stages and ramps, that players can jump and run off of without taking damage.

Travis Scott’s Fortnite Collaborations Were Huge

Travis Scott had not only one of the most monumental musical events, but one of the most monumental and memorable events in Fortnite history.

The Travis Scott event saw not only the artist playing a medley of his hits but also some new ones as well, including a song with Kid Cudi from a side project involving the two artists.

The event was called Travis Scott’s Astronomical and was one of the most immersive events Fortnite has ever had truly making players feel as if they were in outer space and even swimming while watching a giant Travis Scott stomp on the islands near Sweaty Sands.

Travis Scott has his own skin with 2 variants: Default and T-3500. The T-3500 variant is a reference to the Terminator franchise and a Travis Scott song “3500”. As well as the Travis Scott skin there is also the Astro Jack skin, a somewhat mascot to Travis Scott and the Astronomical event.

So overall with the Travis Scott skin and the Astro Jack skin, each with 2 variants, there is also 2 emotes, a spray, 3 loading screens, 2 back blings, a glider, a harvesting tool and a wrap.

Major Lazer

Major Lazer is the personification of the music created by Diplo and a group of other artists releases a unique blend of dubstep, reggae and other genres.

Major Lazer is yet another artist with an Icon Series but the Major Lazer Bundle offers some strange items for the Lazerism set. The Lazerism set includes 2 music tracks, a harvesting tool, and a Back Bling. The Lazerism set also includes the Major Lazer outfit that includes a built-in emote.

Major Lazer is not only an Icon Series outfit but also had an event in Party Royale feat a Diplo and Major Lazer performance.

Sports

As well as video games, music, movies and other franchises and brands Fortnite has also had collaborations with national and international sports teams and streetwear related brands such as Nike.

NFL

Fortnite has had collaborations with the National Football League, NFL, giving players the opportunity to buy a single skin and support any NFL team they choose as well as a Fortnite jersey.

Each skin within the Gridiron set could be customized by number, as well as each teams home and away color jerseys.

Call it Soccer or Football but Fortnite Collaborations Went There Too

Fortnite has a similar style Soccer set, Kickoff that features official teams as well with teams such as Manchester City Football Club and Los Angeles Football Club. Fortnite has an original set of soccer skins as well but they are not official teams or jerseys and feature one of 8 outfits, 2 harvesting tools and a glider.

Each jersey from this set, Goalbound, was customizable as well with jersey numbers but instead of specific teams the color schemes were decided by various country’s flags.

Nike’s Fortnite Collaborations With the G.O.A.T.

Nike had a large collaboration with Fortnite by premiering a new LTM featuring challenges and unique rewards as well as releasing the newest pairs of Air Jordan sneakers in the game.

Players completed the challenges mentioned above to unlocked a new skateboard back bling that had 9 different variants.

The challenges must have been completed during the new LTM mentioned above by Jordan called The Dropdown where players would fly down the street as if they were on a skateboard and had to race other players for points and other objectives along the way.

Players would collect items like shoes and letters like a classic Tony Hawk game mid-match for extra challenges and points.

The Nike Jordan Fortnite collaboration features 2 outifts as well, sporting entirely entirely Jordan signature clothing.

The Hang Time Bundle featuring all of these cosmetics include 2 outfits, Grind and Clutch and the above mentioned Back Board Back Bling.

These outfits each come with 3 alternative styles each on top of their default styles, offering players pink, red and yellow options.

Future Fortnite Collaborations

With everything Fortnite has already collaborated with over the years to the endless possibilities ahead, here are a few rumored and other possible collaborations Fortnite may do in the future. The Icon Series I expect to go on for as long as Fortnite is popular enough to do them.

I don’t see Marvel skins stopping any time soon either and as for DC Comics skins, we already have a bunch on the way with a new Batman/Fortnite comic coming out soon.

Will Anime Ever Be Part of the Ever-Growing Fortnite Collaborations?

While there haven’t been any rumors on any specific anime coming to Fortnite, with the recent battle pass skin Lexa and her accompanying brother, Orin, it opens the door for that art style and possibility of a manga crossover specifically to keep the art style.

Maybe we get a Jump Force style season or crossover?

I don’t expect that much but the possibility of some type or anime crossover is quite likely at some point down the road.

Personally, to fit Season 5, I believe Fortnite could have done a nice little Cowboy Bebop stint of some kind.

National and International Sports Fortnite Collaborations

It is currently rumored that a crossover with Neymar, a professional Brazilian footballer, is in the works for Season 6, possibly at launch or even as a Battle Pass skin.

It is rumored that this skin may have stages to it such as Dire, a werewolf like skin from a while back in Chapter 1 for Battle Pass owners.

I’m sure there will be plenty of other sports from across the world in the future of Fortnite. Personally, I’m hoping we get some sort of NHL or any kind of hockey jersey type skin. I expect NBA skins to make their debut first over any other sports franchise however.

Fortnite Collaborations Within the Gaming Legends Series

Master Chief and Kratos coming from console exclusive franchises, Xbox and PlayStation respectively, to Fortnite for players to enjoy on any system, especially so early into the current season, opened up a huge can of worms to the community.

Specifically, the Nintendo fans saw this as the perfect opportunity for the company to show that they don’t hate the community after recent Super Smash Bros. problems.

What exactly were these Nintendo fans expecting to appear in Fortnite? Samus Aran from the Metroid franchise of course. Samus, being an intergalactic bounty hunter herself.

Personally, I was really hoping for this to be true, but considering Season 5 is about to become Season 6 via an upcoming apparent single player event, I don’t think this collaboration will be coming.

Family Guy May Finally Be a Fortnite Collaboration in the Future

Fortnite leakers in February found a file named “FrenchFry” within the game relating to the hit Fox adult animated sitcom Family Guy.

The leak suggests that a back bling is coming to the game along with a possible portal like other collaborations have gotten this season.

Once again I will point out however is that this current season is about to end and Season 6 is about to start. So does that mean that the portals will continue to appear next season or did this idea get scrapped?

READ MORE: Fortnite: Family Guy Skins Coming Next?

Whatever the case, the images for this so called FrenchFry Back Bling show exact images from the show of the show’s father Peter Griffin engaging in a fight with his nemesis, The Giant Chicken.

My hopes are probably the highest for this collaboration and believe it could mean that truly anything is possible in Fortnite when it comes to collaborations.

Whatever Fortnite collaborations come to the game in the future, I’m sure there will always be a fan of the crossover.

Personally I think that any collaboration can be appreciated in its own way due to all the work Fortnite puts into each individual item.