During the Epic Games Panel at the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC), Skydance New Media and Marvel announced Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, a new game set, you guessed it, in 1943, specifically in Nazi-occupied Paris.
We already knew that Amy Hennig, of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves fame, was developing a narrative-driven Marvel game. Now we finally have some details about what she and the team at Skydance have been working on.
In this hub, find everything there is to know about the game so far, including an estimate of its release date.
Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra release date estimate
Unfortunately, it’s not coming until sometime in 2025, but we’ll still take a deep dive into everything we know about Marvel 1943.
Once we hear more about the release date, we'll be sure to update the hub with all the intel.
Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra engine
Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, and boy, oh boy, does it look pretty. The two-minute cinematic trailer that has been released uses all in-game graphics, implying that this is what the game will look like all the time, not just in cutscenes. It’s the nicest-looking game I’ve ever seen, and the quality of the characters' faces is unreal (pun not intended). It’s utilizing MetaHuman Animator, the same technology that Ninja Theory is using for its upcoming project Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga, so it explains why everyone is looking extra attractive.
We know Unreal Engine 5 is a pretty beefy game engine; just look at Lords of the Fallen and STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. We can assume that Skydance will push the engine to its limits in recreating World War II-era Paris. Take a look at the trailer below to see just how gorgeous this game looks.
Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra characters
In Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, you'll be able to play as four different characters: U.S. super soldier Steve Rogers / Captain America, the king of Wakanda (and T'Challa's grandfather) Azurri / Black Panther, U.S. soldier and Howling Commando Gabriel Jones, and finally Nanali, a Wakandan spy working undercover in occupied Paris. Marvel released a blogpost going over these characters in more detail, and also revealed the voice cast of the game’s four playable characters.
- Drew Moerlein as / Captain America
- Khary Payton as / Black Panther
- Megalyn Echikunwoke as Nanali
- Marque Richardson as Gabriel Jones
The blog post also revealed that Joel Johnstone will be voicing Howard Stark, inventor, philanthropist, and father of future Avenger Tony Stark / Iron Man.
We're intrigued to see how Skydance plans to make each character feel unique. We imagine that Captain America will be more aggressive and direct, favouring good old-fashioned fisticuffs over stealth, whereas Black Panther will probably opt for a more subtle route.
But what about Gabriel and Nanali? As far as we can tell, these two aren’t enhanced in any way, so the developers will have to come up with other ways to make them viable when it comes to taking down those Nazi scumbags.
Maybe Nanali will use her spy craft and advanced Wakandan technology and Gabriel Jones will play more like a traditional third-person shooter? Only time will tell.
click to enlarge
+ 2Marvel 1943 Rise of Hydra story
The trailer hasn’t given us much to go on plot-wise, and except for the main four characters, we don’t yet have a good idea of who else is going to make an appearance. We know Howard Stark is in the game, and Gabriel Jones is a member of the Howling Commandos, so it makes sense that other members of the elite combat unit will make an appearance, Dum Dum Dugan perhaps?
As for other characters, we don’t know. But we can do a bit of guessing to come up with some ideas. Multiple Marvel characters were around in World War 2 who could turn up.
Bucky Barnes, later known as the Winter Soldier, is more than likely to make an appearance, as he was Captain America’s sidekick throughout most of the war until getting killed over the English Channel – of course, he didn’t stay dead for long, this being the Marvel Universe where being killed just means you’re taken out of circulation for a few months before being brought back as a villain.
click to enlarge + 2Other characters that might make an appearance include the Red Skull, head of Hydra and Cap’s arch-nemesis, or Baron Helmut Zemo, nazi-scientist and, um, Cap’s other arch-nemesis.
There is, of course, a tiny chance that fan favourite Wolverine will make an appearance. The X-Man was alive during World War 2 and we know for a fact that he fought in battle – even meeting Cap and Bucky in one comic.
We do think it's unlikely, however. Insomniac has a Wolverine game in the pipeline, and we doubt Marvel wants fans getting their wires crossed when it comes to canon, especially seeing as Insomniac’s game is being set in the same universe as their Spider-Man games, making it a Sony exclusive. It’s unlikely, but not impossible.
That’s all we know about Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. We don’t know what platforms the game is releasing on, but it seems likely that it’ll be coming to all major consoles and PCs whenever it releases in 2025.
For more triple-A game content, check out our review of Capcom's newest title, Dragon's Dogma 2 (spoiler: we really liked it).
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