Marvel Rivals’ devs like throwing in curveballs ‘to make the roster more interesting,’ meaning we’ll probably get more characters like Squirrel Girl and Jeff the Land Shark

Marvel Rivals’ roster is currently 37 heroes, all from various Marvel comics. There are a healthy mix of icons like Thor, Punisher, and Black Widow, as well as a more niche heroes who’ve never gotten the MCU treatment like Magik, Squirrel Girl, and Jeff the Land Shark. While NetEase plans to keep on adding fan favourites, it also enjoys adding an unknown name to the mix.

“Roughly 70% [of the roster] is made up of your greatest hits, like well-known heroes: Iron Man, Cap, etc,” Danny Koo, executive producer of Marvel Games, tells PC Gamer in an interview at GDC 2025. “And then we throw in some curve balls; you might not even know who they are, to make the roster more interesting.”

It’s been great getting to play as some of my childhood icons like Spider-Man or Iron Man, but Marvel Rivals has introduced me to heroes who I hadn’t really given much thought about before. Jeff the Land Shark, relatively new character introduced in the West Coast Avengers comics, has quickly become my new favourite superhero, and I’ve also ended up reading more about my most player characters, like Luna Snow (who first appeared in 2015 mobile game Future Fight) and Magik (an X-Men regular who appeared in a movie nobody watched).

Regardless of how popular a hero is, all of them undergo the same scrutiny during the development phase. “What we do is, whenever we have a character, we’ll come up with a character background, who they are, and the comic references that appear in what they do, and we’ll hand it over to the design team,” Koo says. “Then they’ll come up with some ideas, and we’ll both agree on what their baseline is. When we feel good about [the hero], we go into production.

“Then the marketing team is like, ‘Okay, how do we present this to new players that might not know whose world this is? Do we need to explain it?’ We have a comic historian come in.”

When it comes to future additions, the devs are open to exploring almost every hero, which is a good thing considering that there’ll be two new heroes added every season. “Nothing is out of the question for now,” Koo says. “But we focus on making sure the characters are distinct from each other. For example, Hulk and Red Hulk roughly have the same silhouette, so we may not want to do that one.

“Their [abilities] have to be as distinct as well because we have all kinds of players. Some players love to be Strategists. Some players like to dive into the action. Some players just like to watch other people play. So we have to tailor to every kind of player.”

There really is something for everyone in the Marvel Rivals roster, whether you like wizards, mechs, or a bloodthirsty yet adorable little shark. And while we have a pretty good idea of which Marvel heroes won’t be added to the game, “there’s no sign of slowing down,” according to Koo, so I’m sure we’re in for a few surprises over the next year.