SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 10 ― A drive-in theater that forms part of the Fortnite sprawling virtual island will show a clip from upcoming film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on December 14 at 11am PT.
Fortnite players have noticed that the game is joining forces with Star Wars: Episode IX ― The Rise of Skywalker to show an “exclusive scene” from the film, which begins a worldwide theatrical release schedule the week of December 18.
Through a spread of virtual posters and a large drive-in movie screen, the event is to feature director, co-writer, and producer, JJ Abrams, who fulfilled the same roles on 2015 sequel trilogy opener Episode VII ― The Force Awakens.
Players are invited to begin congregating around the drive-in theater at in-game Fortnite location Risky Reels on December 14 from 1.30pm ET (10.30am PT, 6.30pm UK, 7.30pm Central Europe, 8.30pm South Africa, midnight December 15 in India, 2.30am Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and China, 3.30am South Korea and Japan, and 5.30am Sydney, Australia).
The scene will then be shown 30 minutes later, on the hour.
Fortnite launched on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September 2017, then on iOS in April 2018, Nintendo Switch in June, and for Android devices in August.
The free game popularized a last-person-standing Battle Royale genre spearheaded by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (“PUBG”) and other early followers, generating income through optional, incentivised cosmetic digital purchases and a season pass model that allows regular players to unlock additional content.
With 250 million players internationally, it held an inaugural World Cup tournament over the course of 2018 and the first half of 2019, offering a US$3 million USD prize to the Solo mode champion and another $3m split between the winning team in Duos mode.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker marks the end of the long-running franchise's sequel trilogy, which began with The Force Awakens and continued through 2017's The Last Jedi.
Current Disney+ streaming service series The Mandalorian, which is set between Star Wars: Episode VI ― Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is to end its first season with an eighth episode made available on December 27.
Production on a second season has already begun, while Disney's Star Wars subsidiary Lucasfilm is known to have commissioned two more film trilogies, one from the two Game of Thrones showrunners, who have since left the project, and another from The Last Jedi writer and director Rian Johnson, while Marvel Studios head is also developing a Star Wars movie.
Fortnite had previously collaborated with Marvel Studios for Avengers: Endgame and with Lionsgate for John Wick: Chapter 3. ― AFP-Relaxnews
