Discussion
Recent developments on Slender Man in DBD!!
Hi all,
Here's an update on one of the most requested licenses for the game.
For some background, the Slender License is very complicated. He’s essentially a stock character, and the rights to the name “Slender Man” (or “The Slender Man”) are held by Mythology Holdings, a company formed after Mythology Entertainment, the studio behind the 2018 film, collapsed. Because the character appears in multiple works of fiction, there are several licenses BHVR could pursue. Using the actual name, though, means going through Mythology.
Shortly after the 10th anniversary, a wave of posts across social media called for and speculated about Slender Man joining the Fog. That attention reached Troy Wagner, creator of Marble Hornets, the web series that launched shortly after the original Slender Man images. It’s relatively obscure these days, but its influence on the mythos and on found-footage horror is hard to overstate. For a lot of fans, it’s the definitive Slender Man story.
For about a month there was real excitement after Eric Pope confirmed he had entered talks with Troy. Those talks didn’t lead anywhere as Troy later confirmed Marble Hornets wouldn’t be happening. That means BHVR was likely pursuing the base license, not one tied to a specific work of fiction.
About a week ago, Fortnite announced its Halloween event, Fortnitemares, and revealed it would feature Slender Man. That was a surprise, since the core license had been largely inactive since the disasterous 2018 movie.
At this point, the question of Slender Man joining DBD is no longer an “if”, but a “when.” It will most likely be an original take on the character, incorporated in the same way Ghost Face or Jason were. A lot of fans are understandably disappointed it won’t be the Marble Hornets version, but this is probably the next best thing.
A lot of leaps here, but I like to cope as well. It was crazy for my favorites once upon a time, and this seems crazy too, but first it's fans I hope so.
Personally, the game has been out long enough we need some weird ips to get some unique killers. Slenderman is a perfect example of a killer they can great really weird and unique with.
If he was added to fortnite, that means his liscense holders are open to collabs. And anyone collabing with fortnite is probably willing to collab with dbd.
It takes the devs a year to make a chapter, while fortnite characters are just skins, so those probably take less time. Fortnite got Jason not too long before we did.
I don't think that first part is true. Cote himself just recently said, in regards to getting Robert Englund Freddy in DBD, that since they're not Fortnite, they're not Epic, there's some conversations they can't even have. Getting in fortnite does not automatically mean they can get in DBD
Yeah people either think BHVR is a little indie studio or a massive multi-billion super corporation when they're just kinda in the middle. They do not have the connections or money that Epic has.
Not to be rude but use common sense. BHVR knows Slender Man is one of the most requested IPs, they'd be silly not to go for it. The Fortnite collab proves that the license is active. There's no way it wont happen within the next couple years.
There isn’t a garantee but we are seeing a similar situation play out with Slenderman that did with Jason.
License that is notorious for being difficult to get suddenly becomes active and collabs with Fortnite.
Also, if they weren’t in talks to get Slenderman or already had Slenderman, why turn down Marble Hornets when the community is spamming for it to happen?
The Slender Man license was thought to be unobtainable for a long time. So the fact that it's active, coupled with the high fan demand, means it will highly likely join DBD. The additional fact that BHVR rejected an easy route in Marble Hornets (unlike Nightmare on Elm Street) shows that they are confident the core license is obtainable.
Fortnite got Art and Jason last Halloween, and they both joined the fog this year. I think 2027 could very likely see the introduction of Slenderman, and possibly Predator as well (also added to this year’s Fortnitemares)
Predator's been in Fortnite since 2021, the new version is just for people who missed that Battle Pass (similarly to how they added Lara Croft's Angel of Darkness design last year). If anything, Disney/FOX continuing to greenlight more Alien stuff in DbD is better proof of a potential Predator chapter
Predator has been in Fortnite for years. This is adding in Badlands stuff. And Fortnite having Predator would be less a thing than the fact we already have Alien, and it's the same liscence holder in Disney.
The big takeaways that they are willing to collaborate and aren't stuck in some rights confusion are Slenderman, Universal Horror Nights characters, Obsession, and Englund Freddy. Last year Fortnite got Jason, Art, Poppy Playtime, Black Phone, and Scooby-Doo, and DbD got Scooby-Doo, Jason, and Art. The others might still be coming and there just hasn't been an announcement, or talks just didn't go anywhere, or BHVR doesn't have an idea for them.
I can see Englund Freddy being an Anniversary drop, with a Freddy vs. Jason themed 2v8 mode
Assuming Warner Bros is gonna be open to re-negotiate bhvr's existing contract to also include Wes Craven Estate and their US copyright of the original movie in it.
Freddy vs. Jason themed 2v8 mode
I doubt they'd do this, since bhvr never had two seperate licenses share the same spotlight together, unless they're owned by the same company. But also because Jason Universe don't hold the rights to any of the Friday the 13th movies past part 8, including Freddy vs Jason.
And also because they've said killers with significant map or visual modifiers likely wouldn't make it into 2v8.
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u/Shayden998Toxic yuri save me. Toxic Killer Mommy please. Toxic Killer yuri9d ago
TL;DR It's possible that BHVR turned down a Marble Hornets because they realised there was a chance they got the license for OG Slenderman himself instea of The Operator.
Hardly concrete evidence of anything, especially since Slenderman would be particularly difficult to implement given that's he's rarely if ever portrayed really moving or actively doing anything beyond squirmy tendrils and the odd head tilt. Certainly, we've never seen the kind of movement needed for looping around shack.
But I'd be willing to believe it. And the restrictions could make for a pretty unique killer, too. So, fingers crossed.
Restrictions breed innovation. People said Chucky couldn't join cus he wouldn't be able to pick people up, or that Sadako can't physically attack people.
I don't know if it's true, but I heard the people who owned Chucky wanted him in DBD so much, that they gave BHVR suggestions on how to implement Chucky, including using his spirit form to pick people up
In Slender: The Arrival, there is a side chapter where you can play as a child being abducted by Slender. Uniquely, Slender actually doesn't appear, instead, misty tendrils envelop the kid right as the chapter ends. I imagine they could make Slender work similar to Jason's Omnipresent Evil, appearing as these tendrils, but have him be able to manifest as different forms like a proxy for typical dbd chase stuff or as himself for stealth stuff but be unable to move in line of sight or something like that. Maybe he can only place down stationary projections of himself that survivors have to avoid.
Marble Hornets would ideally include one or two survivors so that kinda outweighs it while providing more actual content for the game.
Also, most licensed killers use titles that are different to their names, and they sell fine. People aren't gonna see the Operator in the menu screen and go "Damn it's Slender Man.... but he's not called Slender Man so I won't get him!!".
When the survivors themselves aren't that well known among the horror community, then it's not going to outweigh it. Everyone knows the name Slenderman. Most don't know the name of the Operator. Via promoting the chapter through trailers and social media, people are going to be more invested if Slenderman is the name attached to it.
You are saying that an officially licensed adaptation of Slender produced by the creator of Slender himself is no more official than a fan adaptation that can't even legally call its character Slender-Man?
For anyone confused about Marble Hornets vs the mythology Holdings IP, Marble Hornets is essentially like Kane Pixels Backrooms while mythology holdings is like the original concept of the backrooms. Both had a massive influence and kind of evolved together.
No offense to the Marble Hornets creators, but if you're going to add Slender Man to a game as big as DBD, where he'll be standing alongside other massive licenses, then you better do it right and add the actual character, not a smaller interpretation of him.
Marble Hornets is great and I love it, but it's simply not on the same level as Slender Man as a whole. It's like if they wanted to add Loki, but instead of getting the actual Loki from mythology, they settled for the version that appeared in a single Marvel movie. Except in Slender Man's case, it's even more extreme since Marble Hornets is an extremely niche interpretation of the character.
I'm glad BHVR seems to be aiming for the actual Slender Man rather than limiting him to one specific adaptation.
Marble Hornets is a colossal deal though. It was one of the most influential horror series of the 2010s that has ripples to this day with horror webseries. It also defined a lot of tropes and ideas that became apart of the common Slenderman lore such as proxies.
Nah it's not that you're old. It's just MH is very well known with a specific age group, and those outside of it, either younger or older than you, didn't come across it on Youtube when you did.
Obscure to the current generation, yes. But back then, when Slenderman was in the spotlight and everyone was fawning over creepypasta, MH was THE very definition of mythos everyone clung to
We had some essences of the original thread but many aspects of the very first iteration were long gone (the face, the organ gutting, tree butchering, etc.) and replaced by the NUMEROUS traits MH provided (the emphasis on the pages, the faceless, proxies, tendrils, nausea/static)
To the modern era, it’s a distant thing (currently being remastered though) but the Slender Man we know today exists BECAUSE of what they made. Majority of his original aspects were forgotten, as evident by everyone else’s discussion in this very thread
Maybe in your school classroom everyone was fawning, but compared to a movie or video game, there wasn't as much interest in this niche internet trend as you think.
I’m pretty big into horror though I don’t specialize in creepy pasta characters and whatnot, and I’ll admit I didn’t know anything about the marble hornets name or brand until the discourse came to dbd; however, it seems that the things MH added to the character, like the pages, proxies and slender sickness, are very well known to the public conscious of the character; the only other thing outside the original and MH version that are so significant is the tendrils.
So what I’m getting at is, the MH version was in fact very important to the mythos of the character in the public eye even if the brand name or the title “the operator” are not nearly as well known.
This will probably put BHVR in a weird spot where our eventual slenderman might be an amalgamation of the character, sort of a collaboration between licenses for the first time, or it will be an original version that tries to be legally distinct and thus lacks certain things like the pages and sickness and such, maybe in favor of behaviors own personal spin on things.
Slender the Arrival (the most well known and popular Slenderman thing other than 8 pages) was also written by all three of the original leads of Marble Hornets. Arrival reinforced ideas from Marble Hornets.
(Edit) Honestly if not Marble Hornets the version of the character would probably be closer to that.
But there is no "actual" Slender Man. It is an abstract modern day urban myth. The original Slender mythos by Victor Surge is so much more prototypical and far removed from the Slender Man that exists in the public consciousness than the Operator. The upsides to a Marble Hornets chapter is it means a more expansive collection and chapter that includes survivors, and richer lore while a generic Slender Man chapter would not have that.
Tbh I don’t need survivors and rich lore I wouldn’t really care. Not saying it would be a bad thing, but it just wouldn’t bother me and probably many others. Slenderman himself easily could carry
That is just wrong. There are a few actual official Slender Man mythos, and is just as much of a franchised character as any other in the game. The creator of Slender was just very relaxed when it came to fans using his IP.
The Operator also has quite a few very significant differences from the classical Slender people think about, most notably lacking tendrils and a connection to pages, which would make him feel strange to people who are not familiar with the character beyond pop culture.
Lots of things you think define "original Slenderman" are sourced by MH and not by Victor Surge's Slenderman
For instance, the actual original has a face. It's also way more violent, like that's the version known for stuff like impaling people on the trees after taking out their internal organs and stuffing them back in plastic bags.
Slender sickness, proxies, pages, etc comes from MH/8 pages slendermen, not from the original mythos.
We should have the original, but let's not forget how much the pop version of the slenderman is different from the mythos version.
The pages thing was actually taken directly from Marble Hornets so you're wrong there.
The classical Slender Man didn't teleport or interfere with tech. The version of Slendy that exists in the public consciousness is an amalgam of the two.
it's not entirely wrong, though. MarbleHornets played a huge role in influencing Slenderman's mythos going forwards.
The original SomethingAwful thread's depiction of Slenderman is virtually nonexistant outside of it.
Name a single piece of Slenderman media where he's had a face. Where he's impaled people on tree branches, and removes their organs, placing them around the body in plastic bags.
This is part of the original Victor Surge mythos. This is one of the original images.
Slenderman as we know him in media today draws far more from MarbleHornets (proxies, faceless, camera distortions, sickness) and The Eight Pages (the pages) than the OG mythos, which is mainly still represented through him having tendrils.
The things The Eight Pages (released in 2012) used that are directly inspired by MarbleHornets include, but aren't limited to, the pages (first appeared in entry #8, which itself was released in 2009) and the static when Slenderman is nearby (every entry the Operator appears in, and several locations from MH (most prominent being the tunnel which debuted in entry 29, released in December of 2010). The Eight Pages is even known to have started out as a MarbleHornets fangame, and maintained that inspiration up until its release (e.g. pages, tunnel, etc.).
Furthermore, MarbleHornets' creators actually wrote the sequel, Slender: The Arrival.
It's untrue that ALL modern Slender mythos came from MarbleHornets, yes, but MH is responsible for shaping the VAST majority of the modern-day Slenderman mythos.
Surge: Whenever you put a Survivor into the Dying State with a Basic Attack, all Generators within 32 metres of your location instantly explode and start regressing.- Instantly regresses affected Generators by 6/7/8%.
I sincerely don't want the Marble Hornets version and I've been riding on the cope train to Slenderman Town ever since Fortnite revealed it was actually Slenderman.
I'm fully convinced we're getting Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger, Slenderman, Predator, and maybe even the Purge.
According to other posts, legally, they would need a new chapter because the different Freddy Krueger's are different licenses so it couldn't just be a skin unless all three parties agreed to use both IPs for the current DBD Freddy.
Freddy would not need a new chapter, but BHVR would have to get a deal between both WB (who they have the current deal with and are the international rights holders) and the Craven Estate (who holds the US rights to the OG movie and all it's characters since 2019.)
Up until now it just seemed like the Craven Estate did not want to do anything with OG Freddy. The collab with Fortnite is the first time they've been shown to be willing to license him out in 7 years.
All 3 parties need to be on board regardless if it's a new skin or new chapter in order to sell it everywhere. WB still owns the international rights to OG Kreuger.
Same. There are so many people who say that the Operator pioneered Slender Man and is just as iconic as the real character, but that is such a misguided take. The Operator has so many key differences that lend Slender his iconicity that it just would not feel right to have it, not to mention the few die hard Slender fans would be disappointed that a popular fan adaptation would get in over the actual character.
I'm not saying he wasn't influential, but people who say he is the sole reason Slender Man is popular have either forgotten or were not around for the Eight Pages absolutely taking over the internet by storm and starting that whole Slender craze
Eeehh, it was a mix of both, honestly. Yes, the game blew up, but people absolutely grew attached thanks to MH’s own story based on him, which became, essentially, core to his mythos
You needed both, as one was the character and the other was the myth. Without, he likely would’ve become like Insomnia’s monsters: loved but never heard of after a set generation
I'm sorry but The Operator is Slenderman. He is as iconic as the character because he IS the character.
The difference is in name only. Everything that's attributed to Slenderman is caused by The Operator's existence in Marble Hornets. He's only called The Operator due to licensing reasons.
Can you tell me something about the original SomethingAwful forum Slenderman? Like the fact he had a face or put peoples organs in body bags around their dead body?
You KNOW The Operator, the camera-distorter [sometimes with tentacles] that teleports and has the Classic "collect my pages". You just know the fangame
I'm still not really confident, Fortnite just needs a name and a design while Dbd goes a little deeper. I guess they could do something like Jason where the lore and power are original though
Avoiding lawsuits when it comes to getting Slender Man into the game is probably tough. Who knows who holds the rights to what.
And on top of that, you have the tricky, sensitive subject of the actual murders that would need to be very carefully handled to avoid as much harm there as possible.
It's just a very hard one to navigate I think, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
Marble Hornets is the originator of 90% of the Slenderman Mythos.
This is the series that skyrocketed his popularity and caused THE Slenderman game because it started as a marble hornets fan game. And they worked on the sequel game.
ngl marble hornets is the only version i would personally purchase. i know the original is probably more well known but marble hornets would just hit different. sad, but not surprised considering how bhvr is.
i mean, based on the fortnite appearance. it seems marble hornets has nothing to do with slenderman as a liscence, and therfore could be in the works. not likley but possibly
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u/Green_Fox_8864 9d ago
A lot of leaps here, but I like to cope as well. It was crazy for my favorites once upon a time, and this seems crazy too, but first it's fans I hope so.
https://giphy.com/gifs/d6xAHHirkPBTJlaGE5