It seems likely that a leaked piece of key art for Fortnite’s next season is real after Chapter 7 Season 3’s Unstable event and a Sonic the Hedgehog crossover comic teased a season centered around what the battle royale calls “Gaming Legends.”
The Unstable event has now taken place in Fortnite and changed the Chapter 7 Season 3 Battle Royale map. The event lasted about four minutes, and Zero Point disappeared and was replaced with a giant cartridge during it. The water surrounding the cartridge in the middle of the map is completely glitched, and the cartridge displays several retro game titles: Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Tetris, and Mega Man. From the various teasers regarding Chapter 7 Season 4, players were already aware that most of these characters would play a key role in Fortnite Override. However, Mega Man remained a rumor, as he was only featured in leaked posters.
On Aug. 14, what appeared to be key art for Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 surfaced on the internet. It not only featured characters from the game referenced in the Unstable event, but also others like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, Ryu and Blanka from Street Fighter, and more.
The Fortnite community was divided on whether it was real or fake. On one hand, it was extremely detailed and featured assets that had already been leaked, such as the giant cartridge. On the other, certain characters were unfinished or felt out of place, namely Pac-Man with the missing eyes.
The following day, a Sonic the Hedgehog x Fortnite comic book appeared at the Chaos Hunt fan event in New York City. On the comic’s cover art, Sonic and Shadow are wearing exactly the same armor and shoes as shown in the leaked image. Sonic has now also been referenced through an in-game event, all but validating the leak.
A trailer for the next season is scheduled to premiere on Aug. 16, so we won’t have to wait much longer for final confirmation on whether the leaked key art was real. As of now, it definitely seems like it is.