[GameSpot] - Fortnite Chapter 3 May Be Coming Next Month, Fan Theory Suggests

[343iBot]

Fortnite Chapter 3 may be much closer than people once thought, according to a fan theory growing in popularity. With Season 8 set to turn over in early December, conventional wisdom said that would usher in Season 9 with its own new theme and gameplay mechanics. Instead, a number of pieces of evidence now suggest we may be in the final days of Fortnite Chapter 2. We've compiled all the evidence so far. You be the judge.

Fortnite Chapter 3 Theory

While some clues are older, the suggestion of Season 9 being wiped out in favor of Chapter 3 really began to pick up steam when Fortnite influencer FNChiefAko (aka Ako) pieced together a few hints from the in-game items that seem to suggest reality as we know it on Apollo is coming to a dramatic end.

[Thread]
All info hinting to Chapter 3 being next Season: pic.twitter.com/Iqo5G3i8iD

— Ako | Fortnite News (@FNChiefAko) October 26, 2021

In the Fortnite lore, the Cube Queen who appeared on the island during Fortnitemares has a history of outright ending realities. Her staff in-hand is even named the "Reality Render" and its description says it has ended "countless realities and adds, "Soon, the island will join them." Her Cubic Vortex back bling also says "Time is running out for you." Even a new emote that came out this season, the Page-Turner, seems to tease players with its description, saying, "Just a second, I'm almost at the end of the chapter."

The Cube Queen also has her own theme song with lyrics that further suggest she plans to wipe out Apollo. You can read an excerpt from that devilishly taunting song below.

"Don't make your peace with all you have known,

Your time with us was only on loan, oh no,

There's just one thing to realize,

This reality is my greatest prize,

And everything you ever thought was true was just part of a game I let you do"

At first, Ako's theory was looked at as a fan placing red strings on a corkboard that need not be placed, but some more evidence outside of the game's own clues seem to further back the idea. For example, in many places where Epic has written about what's coming down the line, the developer has refused to call the next adventure "Season 9."

Instead, the company has said things like "the season after Season 8". At the start of Season 8, Donald Mustard, who absolutely loves to leave clues that go overlooked for months in his tweets, said Chapter 2, Season 8 "and the two after it" are his favorite parts. Hypex's commentary is spot-on. Mustard chooses his words very carefully online and is known to tease things with exacting language like this.

Donald never name dropped Season 9 & 10, he just says Season 7 and "the two after it". And then there's that last sentence..
There's no way this wording is random lol pic.twitter.com/4V14rk2S24

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) October 31, 2021

More recently, at least two Fortnite content creators have started to tease that something big is planned too. Curiously, both SypherPK and TaborTimeYT have used the phrase "catch you on the flipside" after allegedly learning about some Fortnite future happenings. While these teases could just as well relate to a potential Season 9, the phrase was used while they were speculating on Chapter 3, and viewers have come to understand that they may have been given inside information and are merely masking some facts as speculation.

There's also the fact of timing. All of Fortnite Chapter 1 took just over 700 days. Seasons were shorter back then, so in 718 days we saw 10 seasons. But in Chapter 2, not only are seasons longer by design, but the first two seasons of the chapter were extended due to COVID-19 slowing down development. Therefore, we've already hit that length of time in just eight seasons. If Epic prefers a chapter to take about two years, then the number of seasons in a chapter is really a secondary consideration.

Fortnite Season Lengths:
Pre-Season: 43 days
1: 50 days
2: 69 days
3: 68 days
4: 72 days
5: 77 days
6: 70 days
7: 84 days
8: 70 days
9: 84 days
X: 74 days
Ch2 S1: 128 days
Ch2 S2: 118 days
Ch2 S3: 70 days
Ch2 S4: 96 days
Ch2 S5: 103 days
Ch2 S6: 84 days
Ch2 S7: 96 days

— iFireMonkey (@iFireMonkey) October 28, 2021

All of these clues are also accompanied by the summertime Reddit leaker who had insider information that even the game's most prominent dataminers couldn't access. To date, that leak has proven totally reliable, revealing things like the Ariana Grande Rift Tour, the Cube Queen, The Sideways, and more. That same leak also said the Cube Queen would play a pivotal role in Chapter 3. While the leaked information didn't specify that Chapter 3 would follow Season 8, alongside the other clues here, it could be argued that's what the leaker meant--or perhaps even knew but didn't want to say outright.

Not for nothing, but even the black hole that once swallowed up the original island at the end of Chapter 1 was recently updated in the game's files, suggesting Epic is working putting it to use again.

The Blackhole has been updated again yesterday, they added back the hotfix that makes the game load you directly into the Blackhole.
And so many people are speculating that next Season is Chapter 3 due to these hints, do y'all thing it's really gonna happen? pic.twitter.com/YbobiRvr8d

— HYPEX (@HYPEX) October 27, 2021

The last time a single cube showed up, it nearly destroyed the island of Athena. Now, Apollo is full of cubes and they're all being summoned to the center of the map to, according to leakers, form a pyramid. That's where the Cube Queen sits each day too, plotting something we can't predict. Meanwhile, Doctor Slone has opened the formerly mysterious bunker southeast of Catty Corner and revealed a new IO "staging facility."

With these women on a collision course for the end of this season, the final moments of Season 8 will undoubtedly be another breathtaking finale. But the question remains: Will our present reality be left intact when the dust clears?

View the full article