Fortnite’s IP Free-for-All
This mess highlights a bigger issue with Fortnite that’s been bubbling for a while: the sheer randomness of its crossover choices. At this point, the game is less a battle royale and more a corporate metaverse, where YouTuber Ninja can high-five The Power Rangers while Eminem raps in the background and Spider-Man drops in with a lightsaber. It’s chaos, it’s fun, it’s marketing genius.
But let’s not forget: Fortnite is still rated T for Teen. Its backbone is 10-year-olds who feel like they’ve graduated from Roblox and want something “cooler.” And yet, Epic keeps pumping in characters from shows, movies, and artists that are very much not for kids.
John Wick? A franchise about professional murderers. Eminem? An artist whose entire discography is basically a dare to the FCC. Peacemaker? A series that opens with its protagonist shooting a guy’s head off while screaming about liberty. None of these are things an 11-year-old should be Googling at 2 a.m. after buying a new skin with Dad’s credit card.
The Problem Isn’t “Bad Content,” It’s Context
To be clear, I’m not clutching pearls here. I don’t think Fortnite players are suddenly going to become hardened assassins because they bought a John Wick skin, and I don’t think owning an Eminem emote will turn you into Slim Shady. These are cartoon versions, sanitized and silly.
But when you license adult characters into a game full of kids, you can’t act shocked when adult baggage slips in. Epic didn’t add a Nazi dance to Fortnite. WB did - by handing them an emote with hidden meaning and not flagging it. Someone at WB knew exactly what this was referencing. And instead of saying, “Uh, maybe don’t put this in the kid-friendly cartoon shooter,” they said nothing.
Why This Keeps Happening
Part of the issue is that Fortnite has become the default marketing arm for pop culture. If you have a new show, a new movie, or a new album, you don’t just drop a trailer - you drop a Fortnite collab. And Epic, hungry to keep Fortnite relevant, happily signs every deal.
The problem is that when you say yes to everything, you inevitably end up with some… questionable fits. Like Peacemaker. Like Eminem. Like Rick and Morty. (I promise you, no child should be watching Pickle Rick unchaperoned.)
Final Thought
At the end of the day, this isn’t about one emote. It’s about the collision between Fortnite’s audience and Fortnite’s ambitions. The game wants to be everything to everyone - a playground for kids, a metaverse for brands, a virtual Comic-Con for adults. But those goals don’t always line up.
If Epic really wants to avoid future fiascos like this, maybe the solution is simple: stop adding adult characters to a game where the core player base is kids. Because as funny as it is to imagine Peacemaker flossing next to Batman, it’s a short jump from “harmless crossover” to “uh oh, why is my 10-year-old doing a Nazi salute in Fortnite?”
Sometimes less really is more.
