The release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is just a few days away and the hype is stronger than ever. Partnering with Fortnite, Star Wars director J.J. Abrams appeared in-game this past weekend for a truly unique promotional event to reveal an exclusive scene from the upcoming movie.
The collaboration between Fortnite and Star Wars is not something new, with Fortnite having released promotional skins for the latest Star Wars game, Jedi: Fallen Order. However, this time around, they’ve come up with something different to promote the upcoming Star Wars film. To that effect, during the night of The Game Awards, a video from Abrams himself played on-screen, inviting Fortnite players to join him in an exclusive live event to happen in-game.
The virtual live event took place at Fortnite’s drive-in theater, Risky Reels. Fortnite has been teasing this event for about a week now with posters plastered across the in-game locations. There were also trucks situated at the Risky Reels theatre as if the event area was under construction. The event, that was meant to go live on December 14th at 2 PM ET, was delayed by 10 minutes due to the massive number of players trying to get into the game.
The even started with J.J. Abrams arriving in the iconic Millennium Falcon during a clash between TIE fighters and Star Destroyers. The event was hosted by the creator of The Game Awards, Geoff Keighly, who welcomed an Abrams on stage, or rather, an avatar that looked exactly like him. Abrams was live during the duration of the event as he talked about the upcoming film and then presented an exclusive clip which was broadcasted on a floating display. The event ended with Abrams leaving on his spaceship while blasters started firing and there was an ominous voiceover saying “The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the SIth!”
But of course, that’s not all the event brought. Now available in-game are lightsabers, a new set of Star War-themed challenges, unlockable items, and a Jedi training emote. Players who attended the event were also treated to a free TIE fighter that they can use as a glider.