Skip to main content

Fortnite is planning skins for LeBron James and The Rock, documents show

Fortnite is planning skins for LeBron James and The Rock, documents show

/

An internal presentation also shows plans for a basketball mini-game

Share this story

An Epic promo doc presents “Zion vs. Lebron” Fortnite Party Royale featuring Zion Williamson and Lebron James
An internal Epic document from June 2020 shows plans to “announce the first-ever sports event in Party Royale”

An internal presentation at Epic Games showed ambitious promotional plans for the game, including a basketball mini-game and a planned “Party Royale” featuring Zion Williamson and LeBron James. Made public as part of the ongoing Epic v. Apple trial, the document comes from a quarterly business review performed in June 2020.

In addition to detailing the game’s revenue and promotional outlook, the presentation lays out a new kind of “experimental” venture to be built inside of Fortnite, including plans to implement a basketball mini-game as part of a broader NBA partnership.

One slide describes the project as “a Fortnite version of arcade basketball,” which would allow players to take to the courts as an alternative to the traditional Battle Royale. A subsequent slide teases the release of themed emotes, playoff events, and potential NBA post-game shows inside the game.

A slide detailing the planned basketball mini-game, including the text “Create arcade style basketball mini games to showcase entirely new play. We move past the simply toy functionality and into a Fortnite version of arcade basketball”
A slide detailing the planned basketball mini-game.

Notably, rumors have circulated that Season 6 of the game might include a skin of LeBron James, beloved basketball player, driven by close analysis of recent update packages. Zion Williamson’s participation is less clear; the document makes no reference to him outside of the graphic above.

Epic Games declined to comment.

Many of the events detailed in the presentation have already taken place, including an extensive Marvel crossover and the skin partnerships with Brazilian soccer star Neymar and popular streamer LazarBeam.

The presentation also suggests Epic is working on a themed skin with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as part of the game’s Icon series, timed for the first quarter of 2021. No official partnership has been announced yet, but there have been significant rumors around some kind of crossover, driven by unusual visual similarities between Johnson and a mysterious Season 6 character, as well as a cryptic Instagram post from the star.