Marvel Rivals leak points to Deadpool and at least two more new characters
A new wave of datamined voice lines for Marvel Rivals has fans expecting Deadpool to join the roster, alongside two others.
A new wave of datamined voice lines for Marvel Rivals has fans expecting Deadpool to join the roster, alongside two others.
Since its launch in December, Marvel Rivals is one of the few recent attempts at a live service game to actually prove popular.Even though publisher NetEase opted to lay off the entire American staff, It’s been an undeniable hit and given Overwatch 2 some much needed competition.
Given it features a wide array of Marvel heroes and villains, the possibilities for future playable characters are limitless. If someone as relatively obscure as Luna Snow can make it into the starting roster, it seems anyone could turn up.
That said, the most popular and recognisable icons are likely the priority for NetEase, with a recent leak strongly hinting that Marvel’s mouthy mercenary Deadpool is on his way.
This is according to datamined voice lines shared by a dedicated X account for Marvel Rivals leaks called… RivalsLeaks. Although it’s somewhat open to interpretation it’s believed the lines confirm not just Deadpool, but also MODOK and Hit-Monkey as playable characters.
The voice lines aren’t from the characters themselves but existing characters, like Spider-Man and The Punisher, reacting to their presence. In the case of Deadpool, Spider-Man’s line is, ‘Great, we’re saving the world and here comes the loosest cannon. … Just an observation.’
Although the line itself doesn’t explicitly mention Deadpool, it’s hard to think of many other characters that would elicit this kind of reaction out of the otherwise friendly Spider-Man.
The hints at MODOK and Hit-Monkey are more clear cut, with The Punisher literally saying, ‘So long, monkey.’ Technically there are other monkey characters in the Marvel universe but none that are as (relatively) prominent.
A number of references to someone having a giant head could also conceivably be someone else, such as Hulk villain The Leader who is in the new Captain America movie, but MODOK is the obvious choice as he’s basically only a big giant head, with little tiny arms and legs.
Deadpool was already rumoured to be coming to the game anyway, thanks to datamining efforts this past December, where it was found that one of Wolverine’s skins is his costume from the Deadpool & Wolverine movie and a spray depicting half of a heart, shaped like Wolverine’s mask, sparked theories of the other half being a Deadpool spray.
Even without any leaks or datamines, it’d be more shocking if Deadpool wasn’t added to Marvel Rivals. Love him or hate him, he is one of Marvel’s most popular and recognisable characters and has made appearances in other modern Marvel games whenever possible, such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and Midnight Suns.
The real question is whether Deadpool is intended to be part of the next batch of characters. With the exception of season one (which added the entire Fantastic Four), each season of Marvel Rivals will introduce two new characters.
With season two theorised to be themed around the Hellfire Gala, an X-Men storyline from the comics, that would be an appropriate time to add Deadpool, given his strong ties to the X-Men.
However, there are also theories that the next season will add vampire hunter Blade (who already has an in-game model and appeared in a recent trailer for a new map) and X-Men member Emma Frost, a key figure in the Hellfire Gala storyline, whose inclusion leaked through datamined voice lines as well.
Our guess is that Deadpool might not be a season two inclusion and is probably being worked on for later. There is the possibility that any data referencing him is outdated and NetEase changed its mind about including him but, again, Deadpool’s too popular and iconic not to add to the game.
There has been speculation that all the character leaks are actually fake plants by NetEase, in an effort to troll dataminers. However, IGN asked Marvel Games executive producer Danny Koo if this was the case and he bluntly denied it, saying, ‘No. We would rather spend our time developing the actual game.’
The starting roster was already stacked and the list of playable characters stands to get much bigger (NetEase)Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
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