Black Panther leaked in Fortnite

Fortnite has introduced a few more Marvel themed skins following the end of Fortnite Season 4, colloquially referred to as The Marvel Season.

One of these new Marvel skins is the Black Panther, one of the most popular heroes from the new series of Marvel Movies, excellently played by the late Chadwick Boseman.

It was expected that Fortnite would include a Black Panther skin back in Season 4, but Boseman’s unexpected death may have caused them to adjust their original plans out of respect for the actor.

Here's the Black Panther skin doing the Wakanda Forever emote !#Fortnite pic.twitter.com/YBNGaWVAe6

— Dr Cacahuette - FN Leaks (@DrCacahuette) December 15, 2020

Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther, and Fortnite

Boseman was only able to play T’Challa, the Black Panther, in just four feature films, and only one of which was he the lead. Nonetheless, his role and performance was an important step towards Black representation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where the overwhelming majority of leading characters are straight white men.

This lack of representation is felt across the board, and is partly why films like Black Panther and Into the Spider-verse were so well received.

When Boseman tragically passed away last August, Fortnite was in the middle of their big crossover season with Marvel. Black Panther was expected to play a prominent role during the season, but whether his inclusion was delayed or simply not planned to begin with is unknown.

Fortnite did include a massive monument to Black Panther shortly after, prompting some players to hold an impromptu vigil at the spot.

Black Panther comes to Fortnite

Black Panther has an NPC tag so its possibly gonna be an NPC if its not scrapped! (maybe a skin too idk)

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) December 15, 2020

The Black Panther Skin leaked alongside a new Captain Marvel Skin and is expected to drop sometime this season. During the prior crossover season, Black Panther had a number of powers included in the game that featured prominently during the Marvel Knockout LTM.

One thing worth pointing out about the skin leak for Fortnite Season 5 is that Black Panther reportedly has an NPC tag in the game files, implying that he may also end up being included as an NPC somewhere during the course of the season.

However, this may also be a tag meant for Black Panther in Fortnite Season 4 which was later scrapped following Boseman’s death. We won’t know for sure until Fortnite finally puts him into the live version.