Fortnite’s Next Big Crossover? Put Money On Harley Quinn and ‘Birds Of Prey’

Birds of Prey/Fortnite

DC/Epic

At this point, it’s much easier to speculate about what Fortnite’s next corporate crossover is going to be, rather than any “plot” developments in the game itself. Fortnite Chapter 2, season 1 has brought no meteors, no rockets, no cubes, no monsters. Nothing on the map that seems like it’s going to lead into any event in the game itself. But it has brought plenty of branded crossovers and I think it’s easier to speculate about which of those will arrive next.

Looking ahead at the upcoming slate of movies, TV and video game releases that could end up resulting in this kind of promo crossover, only one thing really stands out to me before this season ends in mid-February. That would be the release of Birds of Prey, aka Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, where somehow Harley has managed to take over a comic arc she was never really attached to for her own solo DCEU film.

Birds of Prey is out February 7 in the US, which means we could see an event relating to the film before, during or after its release, sneaking into the end of Chapter 2.

Why this movie? Well, both Marvel and DC seem to have figured out that its target market crosses over with Fortnite players. We have seen two significant campaigns based around both of the last two Avengers movies, Infinity War and Endgame, and Disney went back to Fortnite for a huge Star Wars event this season ahead of Rise of Skywalker.

But DC doesn’t want to be left out either. While they haven’t had any high profile films released during this new, corporate-friendly Fortnite era (outside of Joker, which is not really a comic book movie), they did do a Batman anniversary event that was very elaborate, with Batman and Catwoman skins, and an entire Gotham City map planted into the game for a short while.

Birds of Prey

DC

As such, Harley Quinn and her Birds of Prey seems like a no-brainer for a new DCEU campaign. While the Fortnite playerbase is majority male, female skins are incredibly popular in the game, almost always winning fan votes when multiple options are presented. As such, a superhero film that features mostly women seems like an easy win for a number of skins that would sell well. Harley in particular would obviously be a killer skin, as you could have this DCEU punk version of her, but with alternate looks like her classic red/black costume. And I mean, obviously her giant mallet is going to be a mining tool, right?

Past Harley, take your pick of some other women in the film, Huntress or Black Canary being the main ones. And we could see an Ewan McGregor Black Mask skin as well (with mask on and off as different styles). But honestly the entire thing would probably work even if it was only Harley.

Birds of Prey is the first R-rated DCEU film, which on the surface, may not jive with a younger-skewing Fortnite audience. And yet Fortnite has already done campaigns for R-rated movies like John Wick 3 or M-rated games like Borderlands 3 without issue, so I wouldn’t see that as an obstacle at all.

Mark my words, within a month we will see a Harley skin and event in Fortnite for Birds of Prey. If not, then that’s a huge missed opportunity for both DC and Epic.

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