Warner Bros.' 'Smash Bros.' Game Needs To Go Wild With Characters

Is there something about platform fighters involving children’s characters that I don’t know? Are they a vehicle for minting NFTs? Are they the key to the Metaverse? What is it? Because when I wrote about Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl a couple of months back I figured that was the last time I’d talk about Smash Bros. matchups between my favorite YA figures for at least two years. And yet here we are! Talking about another unlikely contender in the platform fighter genre: Warner Bros.' as-yet-unannounced Multiversus.

Now the big dubya bee hasn’t actually said they’re making a platform fighter yet, but when screenshots and videos of one leaked earlier this month they did issue a copyright notice to take them down. In this day and age that’s one production budget shy of an announcement trailer. This game is definitely being worked on, although GameBeat's Jeff Grubb contends that it’s not by Netherrealm, the WB studio responsible for Mortal Kombat and Injustice.

So, who or what’s going to be in Multiversus? Much like entering my old email password, we have a lot of great guesses but we can’t be 100% confident in any of them. A couple of stages leaked, namely, a Get Schwifty stage from Rick and Morty and Finn and Jake’s Treehouse from Adventure Time. Since it's Warner Bros. we have to hope that they rip off Smash Bros.' Final Destination stage with their own Final Destination, where every move is a Fatality.

Obviously, the main draw for platform fighters isn’t the stages, though. It’s the characters battling to the death-- excuse me, the sidedown. Few companies are positioned better for making a ridiculous platform fighter cast than Warner Bros. And, if they're not cowards, they'll hopefully bring everything to the table. Everything.

In Multiversus, you should be able to have Ed Warren from The Conjuring teaming up with a Replicant from Blade Runner to take down Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, who apparently can use a button-mashing technique to deliver their dialogue bombs at double the speed. This games' version of Fire Emblem swordfighters needs to be a steady stream of near-identical Ocean’s 11 cast members, who will be known for their abilities around breaking through shields. In place of Bowser, the game’s slow, high-damage tank should of course be Willy from Free Willy. Who breathes fire.

None of the last paragraph is confirmed, or even hinted at. But it’s all possible- the breadth of the WB canon is unbelievable. And the character list that’s been confirmed is pretty much just as crazy as the one I outlined. Don’t believe me? Then you’ll be excited to hear you can apparently fight with Arya from Game of Thrones, Bugs Bunny, Rick from Rick and Morty, Gandalf, even characters from Mad Max. Of course, Shaggy is a playable character, and is rumored to be reason the game is being made in the first place. There's already rumored DLC and you cannot guess who it is. The star of Space Jam 2 himself, Lebron James. Multiversus, if it’s released with all of the leaked characters, seems to be willing to mix their children’s characters with their more adult successes and let Master Hand sort it out.

Do what's right, WB. Give us a Smash Bros. clone that lets Tony Soprano spike Chandler Bing for the winning kill. ("Could I be anymore whacked?")

Top Image: Warner Bros.