Since its launch, Marvel Rivals has greatly expanded its roster of characters. Heavyweights like Captain America and Spider-Man share the battlefield with dozens of characters who have gotten a bump in popularity thanks to their appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but lesser-known heroes and villains like Jeff the Land Shark, a very different Iron Fist, and Luna Snow have also been well-received. So what’s the deciding factor in choosing who gets to appear in Marvel Rivals?
According to Marvel Rivals executive producer Danny Koo, the game currently features a “greatest hits” collection of characters that comprise roughly 70% of the roster, but there is room for deep cut heroes to make the cut and get a makeover that’s in line with several other radical redesigns in the game.
“So, 70% of what we do on the roster is the greatest hits, like, popular [movies] and we know about it,” Koo said to GameSpot. “It doesn’t matter if you have watched the movie, the comics, the TV shows, or other games, which will attract people from those sources. And then about 25% is a curveball. It’s like ‘I can’t believe you put that character in,’ right? So that will have interest from the hardcore comic book fans because they probably know more about them than what you see on TV and other mediums.”
“And then, like 5% is the deep cut, right? Probably less than 0.01% know about them, and the great thing about Marvel Rivals is that each hero is authentic to the source material, but it’s being designed with the Marvel Rivals style on top of it. And because Marvel Rival’s art is so attractive, that also pulls in people that don’t usually play games because it’s like a moving anime on screen. When we introduce characters in Marvel Rivals, we always assume that this is the first time you get to know this character. We don’t want to assume that you know this character. This way it allow us to cast a wider net and this could be their first Marvel Universe appearance. So with that in mind, that’s how you see people start latching on to Marvel Rivals.”
The last couple of character reveals have seen several fan-favorites join Marvel Rivals–like Deadpool, Gambit, and Rogue–to more obscure heroes like Elsa Bloodstone, who is probably best-known for poking fun at The Ultimates version of Captain America in the 2000s mini-series Nextwave: Agents of HATE. As for what to expect for the rest of 2026, fans are speculating that Black Cat and White Fox will be added to the game soon and NetEase is building up to the release of Avengers: Doomsday with several themed events.
For more on Marvel Rivals, you can read up on how developer NetEase Games plans to keep the game going in the turbulent live-service video game market.
