Marvel Rivals is competing in a tough genre, but the upcoming hero shooter has one major advantage that its peers don’t- that it can dive deep into the rich history of Marvel and pull an abundance of characters for players to play as. As you might image, the vast majority of these are going to be some of Marvel’s most popular characters over the years.
Speaking in an interview with MP1st, executive producer Danny Koo revealed that about 70-75 percent of Marvel Rivals’ roster is comprised of “greatest hits” Marvel characters, from Iron Man and Venom to Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, and many, many others. That, however, means that about fourth of the roster will let players play as some of the lesser known characters in Marvel’s locker- like Jeff the Land Shark.
As per Koo, for that portion of the roster, the upcoming hero shooter’s development team has “dug deep” into Marvel lore and thrown in “some curveballs” in order to “bring ancient characters back to the forefront”.
This being a multiplayer shooter, we can, of course, expect it to keep growing and expanding for some time after release (if things go right, at least), so it should be interesting to see what other lesser-known Marvel characters developer NetEase Games chooses to add to the roster, if any.
Marvel Rivals is due out on December 6 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. There are currently no discussions being had about potential Switch or mobile releases.