Crossovers are such an integral and successful part of the Fortnite formula that you might assume teaming up with the biggest IPs in the world was always the plan. Not only was that not the case, but Epic's bosses had to be begged, to begin with, to even consider putting non-Fortnite characters in Fortnite.
"We are not interested in putting outside characters into Fortnite." That is what someone from Epic told Anthony and Joe Russo, the directors of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, when they approached the studio about putting Marvel characters in the game. Let that sink in for a second. As we were approaching the release of Infinity War, the biggest movie in recent history, Marvel asked Epic could be in Fortnite, and Epic replied with a flat "no".
Again, this was at a time before Fortnite was the unstoppable juggernaut that it is today. Its exponential growth had begun, but the crossovers that have made it a global phenomenon hadn't even started.
Also surprising, but not quite as surprising as Epic not wanting crossover characters in Fortnite, was the specific Marvel character that changed everything - Thanos. Pete Wanat, who works with the Russo brothers...
