The Fortnite Peter Griffin character is one of the wildest collaborations Epic Games has pulled off yet. There’s a very surreal feeling that emanates from seeing the Family Guy patriarch roam around the island, even if he doesn’t look exactly like the TV show version. While fans have their own theories on why we got a jacked-up Peter Griffin, the show’s creator Seth MacFarlane has shared some surprising details on how this crossover came to life.
Epic Games is one of the biggest companies in the world, but its resources aren’t enough to flesh out Peter Griffin properly. That’s according to MacFarlane, who explains the steps to Griffin’s Fortnite appearance.
“It was great, I had somebody explain to me what the f*** Fortnite is,” he tells an IGN reporter. “He’s very muscular now right? I was told that, like, they didn’t have the budget to create his actual body,” MacFarlane adds. If you’ve seen Griffin in one of the best battle royale games out there, you’ll note that his physique is very different to his stature in animated form.
To hear that Epic wouldn’t have the means to make an accurate depiction of such an iconic character is certainly surprising. Maybe this was the case, and it was just as easy to stick Peter Griffin’s head on an existing character model – MacFarlane compares this to an old magazine cover that once imposed Oprah Winfrey’s head onto the body of a different celebrity. However, it is likely that MacFarlane is joking about Epic’s lack of money to do the character justice, and that it really pertains to keeping the game fair.
The hit-boxes for Fortnite characters need to be consistent across all the game’s growing list of skins, whether you’re playing as John Wick or Marvel’s ultimate villain Thanos. Though, Thanos is a considerably imposing character, with proportions akin to a lore-accurate Peter Griffin. Whether this is the official rationale for Epic Games’ creative decisions regarding skins is speculative, but we do know that Peter Griffin’s ripped stature is accounted for in Fortnite lore.
Prior to the character’s appearance in the game, PS5 and Xbox players could watch this amusing animated short rendered in Family Guy’s hand-drawn fashion. In the short, Griffin is looking for fitness advice from Meowscles, one of the buffest characters in Fortnite. One sip of an expired Slurp juice later and shazam, Peter Griffin can now bench press his way to a Victory Royale. Regardless of how he appears in-game, we’re just happy to bring him into our band in Fortnite Festival, one of the best multiplayer game experiences available right now.