Epic Games has reportedly delayed an unannounced Marvel and Star Wars shooter as it pushes the project’s developers towards an “AI-first” workflow. Ars Technica’s account of Bloomberg’s reporting says the game previously targeted March 2027, but now has no set release date. The reported change would put human developers in charge of guiding AI-generated code and artwork, rather than producing those assets entirely by hand.
The distinction is important: this is a report about an internal development target and production instructions, not an announced release date that players could already plan around. Neither a public title nor a replacement launch window appears in the coverage. A delay also doesn’t establish that the project has been cancelled.
A shooter with a different development workflow
Polygon, also relaying Bloomberg’s report, describes the project as a shooter that crosses over Marvel and Star Wars characters. It reports that a game director instructed staff to stop writing code by hand and move artwork into full AI workflows. Anthropic’s Claude is among the tools mentioned in the coverage.
Those instructions suggest a broader change than using a chatbot occasionally to help with a difficult function or brainstorm a design. In the reported model, developers would oversee and guide generated output across both code and art. However, the coverage does not establish which parts of a finished game would ultimately retain AI-generated assets, or how Epic would disclose their use to players.
Bloomberg’s sources, as described in the two reports, also point to development problems that predate the new instructions. Epic reportedly underestimated the time and number of developers the project would need, and progress had been slower than expected. The available reporting therefore doesn’t support treating AI as the sole cause of the delay, or as a proven solution to it.
Polygon reports that some developers were shocked by the change. That account describes an internal reaction, not a company-wide survey or a measure of whether the tools can deliver the game on a revised schedule.
What Epic has acknowledged
Epic Games communications director Jake Jones told Bloomberg: “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do.” Polygon reproduces the statement in its coverage.
That response acknowledges the company’s direction while emphasising human creative leadership. It doesn’t publicly confirm the reported March 2027 target, identify a new date, or spell out a final list of mandatory tools. The detailed claims about the shooter and the instructions to staff remain attributed reporting.
There is also a difference between using AI during production and putting AI-powered characters inside a released game. Ars Technica recounts Epic and Disney’s earlier AI-voiced Darth Vader experiment in Fortnite, which required a hotfix after the character repeated inappropriate language. That example concerns an interactive character players could speak to, rather than the code-and-art workflow described in this latest report.
The wider Disney partnership
Both outlets place the shooter within the relationship Disney and Epic announced in 2024, when Disney invested USD 1.5 billion in Epic and agreed to a multi-game partnership. That investment is not a disclosed budget for this particular shooter, and the report doesn’t establish that every project under the partnership faces the same delay.
Marvel and Star Wars also cross over outside video games. Tbreak previously covered Lego’s joint Marvel and Star Wars Ideas challenge, although that separate initiative says nothing about Epic’s plans or the shooter’s character roster.
For Star Wars followers, there are other announced projects with more concrete details, including the Ahsoka comic that bridges the show’s two seasons. The shooter remains a different proposition: its development has been reported, but players still lack a public title, confirmed platforms, or a release date.
When will Epic’s Marvel and Star Wars shooter launch?
There is no replacement date in the reporting. March 2027 was described as an earlier internal target, not a confirmed public launch commitment.
Is this a new Fortnite update?
The coverage describes an unannounced crossover shooter within the Disney collaboration. It does not establish that the project is a regular Fortnite update, so players shouldn’t treat it as an announced addition to the current game.
Can players preorder it in the UAE?
The sources reviewed provide no preorder offer or UAE release information. There is no verified regional purchase option to recommend.
