Fortnite fans have been speculating on who voiced The Foundation, a character who appeared in the cinematic and in-game event that started the game’s season 6. The going theory is that it’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but there are competing ideas too. None of this matters much, but it’s Fortnite players doing what they do best: speculating wildly.
Let’s look at the facts. On March 16, the day before Season 6 launched, Johnson posted a cryptic Instagram video talking about the importance of March 16 “in a certain culture” and how “there is connective tissue between that world and my world.” The video ends with him saying, “This is all done to strengthen and evolve and grow the power and the force known as…The Foundation” before raising his eyebrow meaningfully.
This seems like pretty clear proof for many Fortnite fans. Others have pointed out that The Foundation’s armour bears a resemblance to Johnson’s tattoos. Others note that “rock” and “foundation” have similar meanings. Eurogamer reports that The Foundation’s voice lines are in a folder called “DJ” inside the game’s code. On Reddit, players pointed to Epic’s Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard liking Johnson’s Instagram video as further proof of the theory.
Johnson isn’t the only possible voice in the running, though. Players have also speculated that The Foundation is voiced by Keifer Sutherland or even Donald Mustard, trotting out various evidence for and against their preferred candidate. As one player on Reddit succinctly sums things up, “This is stupid.”
It is stupid! Who cares who voiced the character and who the next celebrity to be sucked into Fortnite’s maw will be? But Fortnite has always been great at being a creation engine for wild theories, with players pinning metaphorical red strings between every map change and Twitter teaser to speculate what will happen next. As more and more crossovers have encroached into the game, I’ve found the fan theorizing less fun, depending more on pop culture knowledge than spinning theories thoroughly untethered from any reality except the one created by people who have too much time to spend playing Fortnite. This feels like some good old-fashioned Fortnite player weirdness, the kind I’ve been missing.
My current favourite Fortnite Season 6 theory is about a new skin called Raz, who has tattoos that are similar to the runes on Kevin The Cube from past seasons. This dovetails with another theory that Season 6’s spires are in locations similar to the runes Kevin left when he was rolling around the map. It’s the kind of granular stuff YouTube videos are made for, and I’m here for all of it. Screw The Rock. Bring back the cube, and let players’ creative juices flow.
(The Rock, if you’re reading this, please don’t beat me up.)
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