Fortnite has confirmed that The Basis, its heroic character voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, will return subsequent season – and begun an Avengers: Doomsday-style countdown for his reappearance.
A cinematic teaser trailer launched in the present day exhibits The Basis presently frozen in ice, captured by The Ice King (one other vital character in Fortnite lore). Nonetheless, gamers count on they’re going to be capable of escape The Rock’s character within the battle royale mode’s subsequent season, which begins in shortly over every week’s time.
Certainly, in the present day’s teaser reveals the official title for Epic Video games’ subsequent slice of Fortnite, and riffs on the wording seen in latest Avengers: Doomsday teasers (not that they are truly teasers, apparently) to substantiate the return of a number of key characters.
“The Basis and The Ice King will return in Fortnite: Showdown,” the teaser states, earlier than the phrases shift right into a date (March 19, 2026) after which a countdown clock revealing the weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds left to go till the replace drops.
The teaser itself reveals a brand new in-game location, which appears to be a contemporary and extra detailed model of The Ice King’s traditional Polar Peak fortress. Earlier in-game imagery had teased this wintry palace, and urged it was house to one of many sport’s present Zero Level shard macguffins.
The suggestion right here is that this new Ice King is working with Fortnite’s present baddie, The Darkish Voyager, to reunite the Zero Level’s damaged shards for nefarious means. However earlier Fortnite lore, doled out by way of graphic novels, painted the unique Ice King as one thing of a extra noble determine, who freezes beings he has deemed a risk to actuality. Followers have urged the Darkish Voyager is able to corrupting earlier Fortnite characters (similar to Lynx) to do his bidding. Or perhaps the Ice King actually has simply damaged dangerous?
The unique Ice King was a mysterious character who stored a prisoner in his dungeon again in Fortnite’s first chapter (one thing lately glimpsed once more by way of the Fortnite OG mode, which retells the sport’s unique storyline). In in the present day’s teaser, nevertheless, the brand new Ice King is proven to have a number of different captives, too, together with golden skeleton girl Orelia and Marvel’s personal Steve Rogers (although his may be one more nod to Doomsday).
The teaser concludes with The Ice King sidling as much as The Basis, frozen mid-punch. How he’ll escape stays to be seen, although one issues for sure: with newly-tweaked designs for The Basis and The Ice King on present right here, followers could have a number of must-have new skins to acquire subsequent season.
Current weeks have seen a number of surviving members of Fortnite’s heroic Seven faction return in sport, together with a new model of The Customer voiced by a really familiar-sounding actor. Fortnite is but to formally affirm the return of Dwayne Johnson to his personal position, although followers seemingly will not have lengthy to attend till The Basis speaks as soon as extra.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You may attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
