When Marvel Tokon was announced, it’s safe to say that everyone who saw the reveal immediately started thinking about the roster, and when the developers at Arc Systems Works said they wanted to feature characters who haven’t traditionally been in past fighting games, that only increased the amount of speculation. So I’ve been digging. I looked at the screenshots. I looked high and low across the internet to confirm the references mentioned in the different stages that have been announced. I’ve dug deep and thus, I’ve comprised a list of Marvel Characters that will absolutely 100%, without a doubt, be in Marvel Tokon… eventually. I’m sure once the game is finished and they announce Marvel Tokon 2, everyone will be able to look back at this list and say, “Wow, it might have taken several years, but eventually everyone he mentioned made it into the game.” Am I suggesting I’ve got the launch roster figured out? Absolutely not. Once they said they wanted to feature new people, all bets were off. I even took a couple of big swings using that information, and even then, I still felt like I was way off. Still, though, I had a lot of fun looking up different references and thinking about the characters who could be a lot of fun in an all-new Marvel fighting game. I hope you guys like the list, and if you think I’ve missed someone obvious, let me know.

Announced:

Iron Man, Captain America, Ms. Marvel, Storm, Star-Lord, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man, and Doctor Doom: these are all of the characters we’ve seen so far. Watching the trailer, you don’t realize how many characters are actually shown off, but the fact that we’ve already seen 8 characters is crazy. My goal with the list is a launch roster of 32. So, already being down 8 spots makes the rest of the list that much more challenging.

Predictions Using In-Game References:

A fighting game stage referring to a character doesn’t always mean they’re going to be in the game, but for the sake of the article, I think it’s best if we use these different points as reasons for why these characters will be in the game at launch.

Daredevil

Between Fogwell’s Gym (the boxing gym where his dad trained) and what looks like the Nelson and Murdock Law Firm just across the street, everything appears to be pointing toward Daredevil finally getting some love in a video game.

Dazzler

I’m sure people are rolling their eyes at this one, but in my defense, she’s the original Luna Snow, and that character shows up in games all the time now, so why not Dazzler? On top of that, there are posters of her everywhere in New York. Who are you to tell me that in the middle of a performance, she didn’t step outside and start throwing hands with Doctor Doom???

Wonder Man

The fear of coming off like I’m including characters because they’re suddenly included in the MCU is not lost on me. I’ve tried very hard to put the MCU far out of my mind while putting this together. I say all of this so when I tell you that I think Wonder Man could be a launch character, you don’t think I’m a complete idiot. Similar to Dazzler, Wonder Man is also mentioned in an upcoming musical he’s the star of.

Sue Storm

This one was tough. Not because of the reference. The Baxter Building is screaming in your face. The challenge was figuring out how to include the Fantastic Four. We’ve seen with Marvel Rivals that you could just go all-in and include the entire family, but I think with a roster of 32 characters, tying up 4 slots to one group of heroes seems like a lot. So I went with Sue Storm for a couple of reasons. Ms. Marvel already stretches, so there’s no need to include Reed Richards right away, and while I would be happy to have The Thing or Johnny Storm on the list, when the game gives me an opportunity to include a woman on the roster, I have to take it.

Green Goblin

Is that the Oscorp building I see back there? Listen, the game needs villains. It can’t just be Doctor Doom swangin’ and bangin’ on a bunch of heroes. He’s gonna need help. So why not get help from one of Marvel’s most famous villains?

Namor

Originally, I was going to include Namor in the upcoming section of obvious predictions, but while looking through the above image of New York one more time, I noticed that tucked away, off to the side, looks like something that could be an Atlantis Embassy. While it isn’t common for the underwater city to be so connected to land, we are dealing with a brand-new Marvel Universe. Maybe this version of Namor is more Jason Momoa than Tenoch Huerta.

Lockjaw

When I saw that sticker of Lockjaw posted above Captain America’s logo, I knew we were in trouble because every fighting game needs a freak character, so why not Lockjaw? And because he’s so cute, Lockjaw can easily be the biggest mascot in the world for Marvel Tokon. Everyone hates dealing with Jeff in Marvel Rivals, and I’ve got a strong feeling we’re all going to hate dealing with this big, dumb dog come release.

Thor

Of all the characters so far, Thor is the easiest. There’s a statue of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. Finally, a character I don’t have to actually defend. Could you imagine how stressful it would be if I named-dropped a character none of us had ever heard of? That would be the worst!

Tryco Slatterus

Okay, okay, okay, hear me out! I know this is bad. I understand that this is awful… but what if? Here’s my logic. On Daredevil’s Law Firm, there’s graffiti, and when I tell you I studied what that graffiti said for hours, upon hours, I’m not joking. It says, “Fear The Champion.” Trust me, I desperately wanted to see an “S” at the end of Champion because then I could include a normal character like Moon Girl or Miles Morales. So, who is The Champion? Here’s how he’s described on Marvel Fandom.

“The Champion goes from place to place seeking to defeat all he can, challenging them to matches. However, he uses his great power for little more than bullying others around. He has come to rely solely on his physical skills.”

If that isn’t a fighting game character, then I don’t know what is. Also, when I was a little kid playing Marvel vs Capcom 2, I didn’t know who Blackheart was. “What the hell is a Shuma-Gorath,” I said to my Grandmother in exclamation. So it’s normal, even in a world where we have infinite amounts of information at our fingertips, for this game to include characters we’ve never heard of.

The Obvious Predictions:

I don’t have much to say about this next section. They are the obvious picks for a reason. I’m sure while reading this, you can already guess who some of the characters you’re about to see are. Truth be told, I don’t care if the developers said they want to feature characters from Marvel that haven’t traditionally been in a fighting game. Some of the characters below HAVE to be included, or else people are going to riot. Not me! I’m a selfless soldier in this battle. I’ve included my guy as DLC… it sucks, but I’m trying to be realistic.

Thinking Outside The Box:

As I thought about this section, I was torn on who to include. I think it’s important to make sure Marvel Tokon isn’t just a sausage fest while also trying to balance the number of heroes and villains in the game, WHILE ALSO trying to make sure I’m not overloading the game with one specific group of heroes. Oh, your list includes 15 X-Men? Wow. So brave. So strong. Below are the final 8 characters included in my Marvel Tokon roster. There’s only one character that needs any kind of explanation. The rest are self-explanatory.  

The Hulk (Amadeus Cho)

I feel like this could be Tryco Slatterus all over again, but I think including Amadeus Cho, rather than Bruce Banner, is a nice compromise. We’ve already seen with characters like Spider-Man that Marvel Tokon isn’t looking to recreate the character’s Marvel vs Capcom move-set, so instead of trying to overcomplicate designing The Hulk to be some mindless brute while somehow avoiding the MvC comparisons, why not take the character in a completely different direction? I thought about including She-Hulk at this pick, but I think Amadeus is a fun choice because you still get a version of The Hulk but now he can be more agile and has a personality that isn’t just screaming “Hulk-Smash” for an entire fight and it’s not as easy for fans to be upset at the changes. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure people will still be upset. “WHAT?! THEY TURNED THE HULK ASIAN?! GO WOKE. GO BROKE.” The fun thing that we all have to remember, though, is that people like that have opinions that don’t actually matter. Plus, the developers can give the character a unique design that isn’t just a guy in purple shorts. For crying out loud, look at the picture I have down below. Sexy Hulk?! In 2026?! Now that I’m talking about it out loud, I’m starting to think I should move Amadeus to the obvious predictions.

Season One DLC:

Do you remember when I said it would be easy to include a bunch of X-Men and act like I made a great list? Do you remember when I said I purposefully went out of my way to not include “my guy” in the main roster because, as so many have now told me, I’m a selfless soldier? Am I already preparing myself to pay an extra $10 for him? Yeah… of course I am. And before I unveil the list of characters I think we’ll be seeing in the Season One DLC, I do want to remind people of something. Obviously, you can’t just launch with a GOAT roster. And it’s not because the developers don’t want to include all the famous characters. They could easily have Thanos snapping at everyone or Professor X rolling into people, doing combos with his chair, but Marvel Tokon has to hold back for DLC. And no, it’s not greedy. This is how fighting games stay alive. They are going to drip-feed us heroes for the next four years, and sometimes we’re going to get hyped, and other times we’re going to run to Twitter and claim Marvel Tokon is dead because the newest character is Spider-Man Villain, Fancy Dan. Anyway, here are my predictions for Season One DLC. A perfect mix of popular characters fans have been begging for, while also including something for those gooner freaks who, when they’re not begging for a new sexy character, are desperate for the swimsuit costume pack.