I have heard a lot of “who actually wants this?” talk among the Fortnite children who are not excited about the prospect of The Office characters coming from the game, but to that I say, get off my lawn. Back in the day, The Office was one of the best comedies on TV, running for 10 seasons and ending in 2013 after 201(!) episodes. Now it will live on in the Fortnite metaverse.
The skins and cosmetics for The Office collab have been revealed, bringing both Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute to the game with show-referencing edit styles. We have:
- Michael Scott – Sunglasses and Date Mike edit styles
- Dwight Schrute – Jacket off and Cut-the-face-off-the-CPR-dummy edit style
- Faceless CPR dummy back bling
- World’s Best Boss mug back bling
- Broom stake mining tool
- Dundie award mining tool
- Megadesk glider
- Dwight’s Lil’ Led Car emote
- The Scarn dance emote
If you watched the show you probably get most or all of these references, and I am absolutely logging in to buy these when they launch in the store. Tonight, I believe. These should be the only two skins in the collab as we’re not getting Jim or Pam. Can’t say I’m shocked about that, and if there were only going to be two, Michael and Dwight are the obvious picks.
When this collab was first leaked, I remarked that this really opens the floodgates to a whole host of “normal” characters. These are not superheroes or action stars. What’s next, 30 Rock? Parks and Rec? The Good Place? Oh wait, please do Arrested Development. Gob and Tobias skins. Chicken dance emote. Blue Man edit style. There is so, so much to work with there. I am begging you.
In any case, I don’t know how this collab will do, given that the show was released in 2005, well before half the kids playing the game were born, no doubt. That said, this is certainly not the first time Fortnite has reached far into the past for characters, as we’ve gotten everyone from Ripley to Marty McFly, albeit those are arguably bigger historical cinematic icons. But I would argue that these two were historic TV comedy legends in their own right.
Why do I feel like the next TV collab is going to be The Big Bang Theory. I would not be pleased.
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