Fortnite is renowned for its ambitious crossovers. At this point, fans have seen skins from a ton of major franchises including Star Wars, The Walking Dead, and even The Avengers. A recent leak suggests that another massive crossover is coming to Fortnite in the form of basketball player LeBron James.
If true, this is far from the first time that a major celebrity would have entered the game. Fortnite's "Icon Series" is aimed at including major celebrities and important content creators in the game as playable skins. Just recently, the Icon Series ushered in Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr. alongside England's Harry Kane and Germany's Marco Reus.
As far as legitimacy, all signs point to this leak being highly likely. First, with LeBron about to make a big-screen splash as he stars in Space Jam: A New Legacy, a Fortnite crossover would be a perfect way to promote the movie. Second, and perhaps more importantly, this leak comes from ShiinaBR on Twitter, a notably reliable source. For instance, at the start of the year, ShiinaBR talked about a potential Alien crossover in Fortnite, which was later proved to be true. It's also worth noting that a follow-up tweet by ShiinaBR regarding the LeBron James rumor suggested that they had "100% confirmation that [the leak] is true."
A potential LeBron James skin in Fortnite would be just the latest example of an effort to promote Space Jam: A New Legacy. A few days ago, Nike, Warner Bros., and Xbox announced a Space Jam collab, a bundle containing a limited edition Xbox controller and a pair of LeBron 18 Low sneakers, both designed to pay homage to two classic Looney Tunes characters: Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. With the film set to hit theaters and HBO Max in less than two weeks, Fortnite players could see a LeBron James skin drop relatively soon.
Of course, many fans expressed their dismay at the current trajectory of the Icon Series within Fortnite. While the series originally kicked off by paying tribute to arguably the game's most popular player, Ninja, its recent inclusion of superstar athletes has left fans feeling like their favorite content creators are being brushed aside for celebrities that are relatively unimportant within the Fortnite community. At the very least, most of the current roster of the Icon Series, like Travis Scott or even Neymar Jr., have played or streamed Fortnite at some point, making a potential LeBron skin a conspicuous outlier.
Fortnite is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.