Avengers Assemble: DLC Characters For 'Marvel's Avengers' Discovered In Beta Files

KEY POINTS

Beta files for "Marvel's Avengers" may have contained references to unannounced characters that could be DLC for the game
Creative director for “Marvel’s Avengers” Shaun Escayg said that the game’s post-release character DLC would “extend to all of the 80-year-history of Marvel”
Escayg noted that each DLC character would likely have their own story arc from that extensive Marvel catalogue

A pair of dataminers seem to have discovered some DLC characters for “Marvel’s Avengers” in the game’s beta files that have not yet been revealed by publisher Square Enix.

According to a user on Reddit, references to several unannounced characters are contained within the "Marvel's Avengers" beta’s recent 1.03 update, including Captain Marvel, She Hulk, Kate Bishop, and War Machine.

The dataminer notes that the uncovered code is specifically related to playable characters and not just unlockable cosmetics, reports Video Games Chronicle. A second dataminer claimed to have uncovered even more references to unannounced Avengers in the beta code on Saturday.

According to Reddit user RoboMatters, the recently released PC beta refers to Ant-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Falcon, Mar-Vell, Mockingbird, Quake, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk, Vision, Wasp, and Winter Soldier.

To date, Square Enix has confirmed two post-release characters for “Marvel’s Avengers,” namely the archer Hawkeye and the wall-crawling Spider-Man. The latter is controversially a PlayStation-exclusive character.

In an interview with various media outlets this month, creative director for “Marvel’s Avengers” Shaun Escayg said that the game’s post-release character DLC would “extend to all of the 80-year-history of Marvel.”

“The process of choosing these characters is ‘Can we ground them in this world? Can we make a real argument to Marvel that this character belongs here, this character will move our story forward or take us into new stories?’,” he said.

In what will likely excite fans of both Marvel Comics as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Escayg noted that each DLC character would likely have their own story arc.

Considering the vast history of most of these characters in the eight decades that Marvel has existed, that is a pretty extensive number of stories to choose from for any of these characters to be explored further in “Marvel’s Avengers.”

“That is the plan,” he added. “It will depend on how deep we go. But no character can be introduced without a story. That’s part of the Marvel rule, so we have to have it introduced with a story arc, understand what that character is going through, potentially what villain is creating sort of that conflict.”

Set for a September 4 release for current generation consoles and PC, “Marvel’s Avengers” is also launching on next-gen consoles later this year when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X make their respective debuts. Owners of the current-gen version of the game will be able to upgrade at no additional cost.