For a long while now, Fortnite has incorporated boss battles into the game. Commonly an original Fortnite character, boss battles provide the most challenging AI fights in the game, with the foes equipped with a powerful weapon and special abilities. According to a new leak, next season's boss battle may include none other than the iconic Star Wars antagonist Darth Vader.
Epic Games' immensely popular free-to-play battle royale title is now in its third week of Chapter 3 Season 2. Fortnite's latest update went live earlier this week, which adds a major battle between the IO and the Resistance at The Daily Bugle, unvaults a reworked version of a fan-favorite weapon, and rebalances several others.
The supposed news that Darth Vader will be a boss battle in Fortnite Season 3 comes from established Fortnite leaker and dataminer ShiinaBR via Twitter. Shiina's claim is further corroborated by TaborTimeYT, of which ShiinaBR claims is always posting correct leaks. However, before fans get too excited, ShiinaBR states in another tweet that next season will not be Star Wars-themed.
News of the Sith Lord being one of the battle royale's bosses next season builds upon the leak from a few days ago that Darth Vader would be coming to Fortnite. Epic Games' State of Unreal event for its Unreal Engine 5 launch revealed several files, one of which is titled "C3S3_VADER," which all but confirms the powerful Force user is coming to the island from a galaxy far, far away. The shot of the development files also potentially reveals several other upcoming crossovers, like DOOM and Family Guy.
Darth Vader's arrival would be far from the first time Fortnite and Star Wars have collaborated. Fortnite had its first major Star Wars event in December 2019 during the first season of Chapter 2, where players got access to an array of themed skins, lightsabers, and blaster weapons. In the time since, a variety of Star Wars characters have entered the fray, including The Mandalorian's Din Djarin, the iconic Boba Fett, and most recently Fennec Shand and Krrsantan from The Book of Boba Fett.
Epic Games has not confirmed Vader's addition yet, so fans should take the info with a grain of salt. While it should be very interesting to see if the Mythic weapon he yields is his lightsaber or perhaps a new ability like Force Lightning, hopefully he's not as aggressive as the Mandalorian boss who killed Fortnite players before they could even land on the island.
Fortnite is free-to-play on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.