The never-ending quest to incorporate every brand and franchise in existence into Fortnite rages on as players believe Epic Games is teasing a Middle-Earth crossover.
On Friday, industry insider ShiinaBR posted a beach section of Fortnite‘s map that looks suspiciously like an iconic location from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Little sand castles are arranged precisely like Helm’s Deep, complete with a hole blown through one of its walls. Massive mountain-like stones sit on both sides of the diorama too. Everything is placed in such a deliberate why that it’s doubtful that this isn’t supposed to be a direct reference.
Please take a look at the screens below to see what I mean. That ramp on the right looks straight out of Peter Jackson’s film.
Epic is currently teasing a The Lord of the Rings collaboration on the Island!
The Rock Kid is building this on the beach right now, and there are A LOT of similarities between this sand castle and a LotR castle!
(Thanks to @koooooomar & @FN_Assist for making me aware of this!) pic.twitter.com/CThplKwCrh
— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) August 19, 2022
ShiinaBR is known for spot-on Fortnite rumors and leaks. They even shared the recent Dragon Ball crossover trailer before Epic Games made it official. This little Helm’s Deep lookalike has been part of the Fortnite map for months and has had bits added to it with each recent update.
Speculation is running rampant regarding all of this. Some believe it’s a crossover with Amazon’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series, while many more think the sand castle is just a cute reference. It’s worth noting that Embracer Group bought the video game and movie rights to Lord of the Rings this week. So navigating the legal mess with that IP is probably incredibly difficult, perhaps more than Epic Games would want to deal with now.
Whatever the case might be, it’s an interesting development indeed.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.