Doja Cat Waited Years for Her Own 'Fortnite' Skin. Now, She Rules Fortnitemares as the Mother of Thorns

Placing Doja Cat at the center of Epic Games’ Fortnitemares chaos is a no-brainer. The GRAMMY winner, who enters Nitemare Island as the Mother of Thorns, is an avid player of the game, loves Halloween and celebrates her birthday in the same season. But let’s make something clear, this collaboration isn’t one of those random celebrity tie-ins: Doja Cat is very much a real and long-time Fortnite player.

Over the years, she’s publicly made it known that she understands the love and rage that comes with partaking in this online video game. Aside from namedropping the game on “Agora Hills,” she would hop on Instagram Live while playing, and also told MTVPush five years ago that her Fortnite addiction has turned her into a person she doesn’t like — a sentiment many players can relate to. Jimmy Fallon even tried to test her knowledge of Fortnite lore in a game of “Real or Fake” on The Tonight Show. Unsurprisingly, she got every single answer correct.

“The Mother of Thorns was built for me.”

The Mother of Thorns takes visual inspiration from her “Paint The Town Red” music video, with the in-game artist dressed in Doja Cat’s iconic all-red outfit. “I’ve been waiting many years for my own Fortnite skin. As a real player of the game, it’s special to me,” she tells Hypebeast. “Fortnite rarely develops a full in-game storyline around a celebrity, so I jumped at the chance to play a real role, provide voiceover and step into a character.” With Fortnitemares launching just a week before her latest studio album, Vie, Doja Cat and Fortnite also surprised fans by previewing “AAAHH MEN!” via the event’s trailer. “It feels like a poetic score for the trailer.”

It took approximately nine months of creative development for the project to come to life. “It’s an incredible process to develop the art and final output. Whereas with music, there’s an immediacy in creating the art,” she shares. In addition to her “Paint The Town Red” ensemble, players can also style the in-game Doja Cat in her “Agora Hills” outfit and switch between three interchangeable hairstyles, with her mullet serving as the default. “We even made the Agora Hills skin into a levitating emote, which I’m obsessed with personally,” she adds.

“Fortnite is the ultimate extension of a brand and becoming a playable character is the most interactive with your fans you can get,” Doja Cat says. She made sure to instill that in the ethos in the creation of the Mother of Thorns, allowing players to also recruit her as their companion when they defeat her. “When I was first presented the idea, it was just [for the Mother of Thorns] to be defeated,” she admits, “but I didn’t see any fun in that.” Now, players have the opportunity to have her as backup while they go against others on the island.

“I’ve been waiting many years for my own Fortnite skin…it’s special to me.”

“The Mother of Thorns was built for me,” Doja Cat proudly says, and it truly shows. From the newly-integrated emotes, the thoughtfulness of the character details and her impeccable voice work (she would make a wonderful voice actor), the Mother of Thorns is an enjoyable and refreshing addition to Fortnitemares for both Fortnite players and her fans. “I could not think of a better way to come into the game than through my favorite holiday (and birthday) season, and one week after the release of my fifth studio album, Vie.”

In the eight years since the first Fortnitemares, players are very much aware of just how much it evolved. From only having in-game characters to now incorporating huge IPs like Scooby-Doo and A-listers like Doja Cat, the game only proves its lasting influence.

Go pay Doja Cat a visit on Nitemare Island before November 1. “I’ll be waiting and watching,” she says enticingly, but heed her warning: “The Mother of Thorns is a trickster and my presence spreads across the entire island.”