Avengers Directors Had To Spend Hours Convincing Epic Games To Put Thanos In Fortnite

In 2018, as part of the promotion for Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos was added to Fortnite, complete with the Infinity Gauntlet and some dance moves that would make John Travolta blush. But it may not have ever happened if Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo hadn't directly lobbied Epic Games to bring Thanos into the world of Fortnite.

During The Game Business Live, Pete Wanat--the president of interactive technology for the Russos' AGBO--revealed that Epic's former chief creative officer, Donald Mustard, wasn't initially on board with having Thanos in Fortnite. That's why Anthony and Joe Russo spent hours convincing him go forward with it.

"Originally it was like, 'No, we are not interested in putting outside characters into Fortnite,'" recalled Wanat. "And Joe and Anthony got together and had a phone call with Donald. It was supposed to be a half-hour call, but five-and-a-half hours later, they were still talking about it. And Donald basically changed his mind. He said, 'Hey, you know what, we're going to do this.' And after that, the world exploded about what kind of integrations you could have between film and TV and games."