At San Diego Comic-Con 2025, Marvel Rivals returned for its second year. This time, it was a full-blown celebration. Executive Producer Danny Koo couldn’t help but reflect on how far the game has come. “We announced [last year], nobody knew what Marvel Rivals is yet,” he said. “Then we went ahead and launched the game globally. Now it’s all about the fan celebration because Marvel Rivals has established itself as the resident shooter.”
Heading into Season 3.5, the pace is picking up, and Koo loves it. “We started with three months per season. Now we shortened it to two months per season,” he said. “Every month, it’s a new hero. Don’t blink, because the meta changes so quickly.”
Get BWT in your inbox!
Get BWT in your inbox!
That shifting gameplay is intentional. “First and foremost, the development team appreciates that every hero that you play has to be fun first,” he explained. “We won’t worry about balancing yet. Let’s make it broken, as broken as [it] can be, and then we’ll take a step back.”
With shorter times between seasons, Marvel Rivals is constantly changing and evolving.
From there, the balancing process begins. “We look at everyone’s play style,” he said. “We have dynamic environment destruction, so naturally it lends itself to dynamic team-up. We can introduce new team-ups, remove existing ones, or supplement new ones.”
With the competitive scene growing and casual players flooding the game floor at SDCC, balance is crucial. “The dev team has an internal playtest team that does that loop,” Koo explained. “Fun is what the casual players want. They want to have a good time. At the same time, it’s not so broken that it breaks the competition [side].” And if something doesn’t work in the real world? “We are not afraid to roll back,” he added.
One of the more unique aspects of Marvel Rivals is how it builds new stories within the larger Marvel universe. “We aim to provide fresh content for existing Marvel fans and also attract new fans,” said Danny Koo. “The dev team take inspiration from a lot of different sources. We [have] over 86 years of Marvel history [to pull from].”
That includes deep comic cuts like the Malice costume for Invisible Woman. “That was about Susan Storm having a mental breakdown. That was a great arc,” he said. “So we want to modernize that, taking that and fast-forwarding to 2025. What would she look like in Rivals‘ style?”
Of all the characters, Luna Snow remains a personal favorite for Danny Koo.
What surprised Danny Koo most was the way fans embraced each other. “We highly encouraged everyone to make friends, and the community reacted very positively to it,” he said. “We now have almost 4.2 million members on the Discord. It’s one of the largest gaming Discords on Earth.” That community culture is something Koo is proud of. “We built a community that’s able to accept each other and play with each other,” he added.
Asked about his favorite character, Danny Koo didn’t hesitate: “Luna [Snow]. I co-created her back in 2018.” He explained further, “She was in this little mobile game, but then Rivals took it to the next level, [introducing] her to more players. Now, everyone gets to know who she is.”
For Koo and the team, this creative freedom drives the experience. “We are not in the business of stopping them [from doing] anything creative,” he said of the dev team. “The sky is the limit.” With that said, even his favorite, Luna Snow, isn’t immune to nerfs. “It’s fun to see her dancing,” Koo said. “But if a game never ends with a long ult, then yeah. We respect players’ time, so we want to make sure we balance that.”
Keeping fun at the forefront is the focus for Danny Koo and the Marvel Rivals team.
Koo teased several Comic-Con reveals before the end of the weekend. “We gave a sneak peek of Blade. Please look forward to the full reveal next week,” he said. “We also announced the poster book, available January 2026. The art book comes out in September. Marvel Unlimited subscribers get Marvel Rivals comic issues 13–18 on July 31.”
Fans of Luna Snow were also treated to something special. “We just launched Luna Snow’s music video to celebrate the summer remix,” Koo said. “Whenever Luna Snow has a key costume, I will make sure there’s always a K-pop music video to go with it. We are working with talented K-pop artists.” As for who worked on the current track? “The current song was done by Lemon. She has worked with a lot of big K-pop artists,” Koo shared. “The next one I can’t say yet, but soon.”
Danny Koo and the Marvel Rivals team aren’t just building a game. They’re building a universe that evolves with its players. With deep lore, meaningful community, and a constant stream of content, Koo’s vision is clear: keep things fun, keep them fresh, and make sure every hero has their moment to shine.
Marvel Rivals is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
