Over the course of its storied life, Fortnite has managed to pull in characters, themes, and references, from the entire spectrum of popular culture. Epic Games really have continued to push the boundary of what's possible with who can show up in the continually popular battle royale shooter, to the point where nothing is too surprising now. Having recently accommodated the likes of Lara Croft, The Terminator, and Iron Man, a host of recent leaks suggest Season 7 is going to have a decidedly more out of this world angle to it.
All signs point to the incoming season being heavily sci-fi themed, which in many ways is the popular opposite to the ancient Primal aesthetic that's dominated the Fortnite landscape for the last few months. If the laundry list of leaks and official teases are to be believed, players can look forward to having their own Close Encounter with aliens from the start of next season. Even though the game has dabbled with aliens and extraterrestrial forces on numerous occasions in the past, everything shown so far is making it look that the little green men are going to play a much larger physical role in proceedings going forward.
Alien Propaganda in Fortnite
In the aftermath of a recent Fortnite update, players on Twitter started to dig into the game's refreshed files to see what new additions and leaks they could uncover. What they dug up included a long list of new art assets, that are seemingly going to be introduced across the map once the next major content update officially goes live. The majority of the new additions appear to be funny twists on traditional road signs, only instead of warning about getting run over by a car, the ones in Fortnite are designed to alert players to the linger presence of alien invaders.
For the last few seasons Epic has allowed players to interact with NPCs across the map. These new signposts could be an indicator that at least some of the aliens will be friendly, and therefore a benefit to players during their matches. It's highly likely that special sci-fi themed weapons will be introduced to replace the outdated Primal ones, which would make these new vendors extra important for upgrade materials.
One particular new poster also shows a group of bulbous-headed aliens holding hands with a bunch of humans, which suggests that in-game the aliens are aware of the PR campaign they need to run to get players on board. Specific alien themed quest givers, questlines, and an outrageous invasion based story, all seem like too good of an opportunity for the game to pass up on.
What could be of particular significance about this poster, is the fact that Epic have deliberately included seven alien beings within it, which might be a subtle reference to The Seven. For a long time this shadowy organization has played a major role in directing Fortnite's narrative each season, with members of the group showing up out of the blue in stylized meteor-shaped spaceships. It's not out of the realms of possibility that The Seven have a direct evil alien counterpart, that could become the driving force of Season 7's background plot.
The Aliens Are Already Here in Fortnite
In typical Epic fashion, the approach of a new season hasn't stopped the publisher from teasing what's coming in the present. Ever since Tilted Towers was decimated before the start of Season 8 in 2019, fans have learned to roll with the punches when it comes to the unexpected. Up until now, only little signs like mysterious real world postcards, and in-game crop circles, have hinted at an extraterrestrial presence being active behind the scenes. Recent developments now appear to back this latest round of leaks, as things have already started to take on a physical dimension that appears to be just the start of things to come in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 7.
Since Tuesday night, growing reports have popped up on the internet of Fortnite players having Close Encounters of the Third Kind whilst minding their own business. Players still can't see the aliens for themselves, thanks to the intense bright light that seemingly sucks them up until the alien spaceship, but that could be about to change.
Right now the aliens operate at random towards the center of the map, scooping up the unaware before dumping them somewhere else with full health and shield. However when Season 7 properly arrives, the batch of Twitter leaks suggests that the aliens will pop up much more frequently with little warning, across the whole map, spawning 15 seconds after every storm.
Of particular note is the fact that the aliens can likely mass abduct up to 20 people at the same time, which could be an indicator that players will be able to continue their fights on the alien spaceship. Perhaps even being able to influence their ultimate destination by seizing control of the craft, whilst fighting off alien NPCs. Even though dropping an entire army of players onto unsuspecting groups at random across the map would be chaotic fun within itself, there's an opportunity for Epic to really push the envelope. Based on the marketing campaign that's accompanied the leaks, all signs point to Season 7 being truly one of a kind.
Fortnite is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.