RoboCop, the part-man, part-machine supercop protagonist of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 ultraviolent satire of Reagan era-corporate greed, has come to Fortnite. RoboCop’s arrival in the battle royale game also introduces another familiar element of the original film: the total degradation and humiliation of ED-209.
That’s because you can now ride on the back of a diminutive ED-209, thanks to a new emote in Fortnite. Players can also use ED-209’s severed leg as an in-game pickax. That’s called the LEG-209, which can also be equipped as a Back Bling.
RoboCop, the Christlike figure who once meted out justice by shooting a criminal in the dick but has since been softened to little more than a cool action figure, is now available as an outfit from the Fortnite Item Shop. Players can also get a bundle with the LEG-209, with which they can beat fellow players over the head to drive home themes of the dangers of corporate privatization of public services, or something.
Beyond Fortnite, RoboCop is set to return in his own video game, RoboCop: Rogue City, sometime in 2023. The creators and original writers of RoboCop, Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner, are trying to make a new film, RoboCop Returns, which has been pitched as a direct sequel to the first film and ignores the sequels’ continuity. District 9 and Chappie director Neill Blomkamp was once attached to RoboCop Returns, but the project has since been handed to a new director, Abe Forsythe.
