While the Marvel Cinematic Universe received the majority of attention at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, video game developer NetEase also shared some exciting news for their upcoming game Marvel Rivals.
For those unfamiliar, Marvel Rivals is a Super Hero Team-based PVP Shooter set in the Marvel Universe. Players are able to choose from a wide variety of fan-favorite and cult-classic Marvel heroes and villains from across the Marvel Multiverse, including the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, and more.
The developer kicked things off by sharing a cinematic story trailer for the game which provides a bit of background context and explains how these various heroes and villains are coming together from the Multiverse. Check out the cinematic story trailer, titled "No One Rivals Doom," below!
The merciless clash between tyrannical dictator Doctor Doom and his future counterpart from the year 2099 has forced countless universes to collide in the Timestream Entanglement, creating new worlds and crises unknown.
Now, Super Heroes and Villains from across the multiverse must fight together and against one another as disparate groups each seek to best both Dooms before one achieves domination of these realities. Familiar faces become newfound foes while former enemies become the greatest of allies in Marvel Rivals!
In addition to the story trailer, NetEase also revealed some of the actors who will be voicing our favorite super heroes and villains. The voice cast includes Cassandra Lee Morris (Persona 5’s Morgana) as Galacta, Troy Baker as Loki, Nolan North as Rocket Racoon, Yuri Lowenthal as Spider-Man, and Mara Junot as Storm.
Nolan North and Troy Baker are two of the biggest names in the video game voice-acting industry. Baker is best known for providing the voice of Joel in Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, and is also set to star as Indiana Jones in Bethesda's upcoming adventure Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Nolan North has voiced Nathan Drake in the Uncharted Series, Desmond Miles in Assassin's Creed, and Tony Stark in Marvel's Avengers.
Yuri Lowenthal is actually another fairly big name. The veteran voice actor has appeared as a voice in Diablo 3, Prince of Persia, and Saints Row, but has since become one of the more notable voice actors associated with Spider-Man as he voiced Peter Parker in Insomniac Games' critically acclaimed Marvel's Spider-Man series.
The final announcement was the reveal of two more playable characters: Thor, God of Thunder, and Jeff the Land Shark. Thor, which was briefly shown in the cinematic trailer above, is the more widely known character of the two. He arrives with his signature powerful hammer and devastating lightning abilities.
Jeff the Land Shark is a bit more of an unknown, having made his first appearance in West Coast Avengers vol. 3 #6 in October 2018. Created and experimented on by M.O.DO.K., Jeff the Land Shark was liberated from his crazy creator and was basically adopted by Gwenpool (an amalgam of Gwen Stacy and Wade Wilson created by Chris Bachalo for a variant cover of Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars #2).
Both characters were added to the playable roster in Marvel Rivals over the weekend. With their addition, the full roster now sits at 23 characters:
- Adam Warlock
- Black Panther
- Doctor Strange
- Groot
- Hela
- Hulk
- Iron Man
- Jeff the Land Shark
- Loki
- Luna Snow
- Magic
- Magneto
- Mantis
- Namor
- Peni Parker
- Punisher
- Rocket Raccoon
- Scarlet Witch
- Spider-Man
- Star-Lord
- Storm
- Thor
- Venom
NetEase has still not announced a release date for Marvel Rivals, but the free-to-play title could launch later this year given that we are already in a closed beta testing phase. It's scheduled to release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.