Marvel Rivals had a pretty impressive first year between 2024 e 2025. Many new heroes, new game modes, limited time events and new features have been added to enjoy on the go. No entanto, as the free-to-play shooter heads into its second year from 2025 to the end of 2026, there are hundreds of ideas that fans would like to see the developers add. Although not every concept can make it into the game, some of the ideas discussed are very popular in the community. Here are 10 things Marvel Rivals could add in 2026 to further expand the game’s success.
More villains
Marvel Rivals already has a pretty extensive roster. No entanto, only a tiny percentage of this list is made up of villains. With a whole new year of character additions coming up, a pivot that includes a handful of villains throughout the year would satisfy many fans. Additionally, there would also be some really fun and interesting interactions with the heroes, as well as the potential for some unique team-ups that could arise from the more contrasting individuals throughout the franchise. Some of the community’s favorite villains they would like to see in the game include Thanos, Doctor Doom, Mystique, and Doc Ock. As for whether any of them actually appear in the squad any time soon… well, the players will just have to wait and see!
More main game mode maps
Cards are an extremely important aspect of the game. After all, it gets boring when every game takes place in the same place. No entanto, most of the new maps added to the game are tied to new game modes, usually limited to Arcade. Most recently, the one Resource Rumble card was completely removed from Season 6 onwards because it was extremely unpopular in the community.
With seasonal map pool rotations, it can get tiring if your game is limited to just a handful of different locations every other season. There are only a few cards for each main game mode, Quick Play or Competitive. Therefore, it would be nice if new maps for these modes were introduced more regularly and weren’t tied to Arcade Mode.
More interactive emotes and universal emotes
Emotes are a fun way for players to express themselves and get laughs in-game, whether after a play or while hanging out in Times Square. The most popular emotes so far include the universal emotes and the interactive emotes. Universal Emotes are dynamic poses or animations that can be added to any (or at least a large selection) of characters in the roster. Interactive emotes are emotes that two or more players can use in a collaborative action – like the Emma Frost and Jeff the Land Shark cuddle emote or the Volleyball emote that was paired with the Summer Skins event a few seasons ago.
It would be great to see more emotes like these that encourage positive player interactions. There’s also literally endless potential for the things they could come up with – an interactive Deadpool and Wolverine emote, romantic gestures between some of the couples on the list, silly universal dance emotes that can be used to create the perfect dance group in Times Square… It’s often little things like this that bring players a surprising amount of joy.
Optional role queue
One of the biggest disagreements within the Marvel Rivals community is whether or not the game should implement a role queue. Personally, I don’t think this would improve the game as it would change wait times (like Overwatch 2) and drastically affect many team compositions and team-up abilities. The fact that you can customize your team as needed to work with team-ups is one of the unique aspects of Rivals, and the role queue would limit the number of team-ups that could be brought into play due to the 2-2-2 standard.
No entanto, I think a good interim solution would be to implement an optional role queue where players can queue for a specific role. If matchmaking times take too long, they will automatically be assigned to the “Flex”/Regular queue where they can select any role as usual. This would give players who really want to play Role Queue a chance to immerse themselves in some games, but would also be less of a hindrance to the game as a whole, as things would ultimately require some serious changes and rebalancing if Role Queue were introduced.
Other narrators/announcers (except Galacta)
Galacta is the announcer of the Marvel Rivals game, always chattering about which players are boarding the payload or contesting the objective. Most Marvel Rivals players have the classic “Another epic victory, biiiiiiig victory!” fed up. or in some unfortunate situations, repetitive situations: “Well, you can’t win them all…”
If you’ve wished there were other options for cycling besides Galacta, you’re not alone. This could potentially be done on a per-map basis, or even additional unlockables that players could purchase using accessory points or other earnable currency. We’ve already seen this possible with the addition of Khonshu as an announcer for Marvel Rivals’ Zombies mode, so it would be really great to see some more options. Popular characters that fans have discussed wanting to see as announcers in the game include Galactus, Doctor Door, Khonshu (for non-Zombies modes), Spider-Ham, and more.
More interactive team-ups
When Marvel Rivals launched, the concept of team-ups was one of the game’s biggest selling points. It allowed players to combine their hero selections to unlock new abilities or interactions that can be used in battle. No entanto, over the seasons, team-ups have become more about the anchor hero unlocking a new ability for the partner hero, rather than introducing interactive mechanics.
Some of the best team-ups in the game are those where characters interact with each other to perform an action or special move. Instead of continuing the pattern of skill-based team-ups like Hela and Namor or Cloak & Dagger and Hawkeye, it would be phenomenal if more interactive team-ups made their way into the game, similar to Hulk and Wolverine, Captain America and Winter Soldier, or the Groot, Jeff and Rocket team-ups, where both players actually interact and work together.
More alternative variation skins (Lady Loki)
After all, Marvel Rivals players love a good skin. The sheer number of different skins available and released each season keeps the community coming back for more. If there’s one skin from 2025 that really shines, it’s the Lady Loki skin, the first of its kind to completely change a hero’s 3D model and voice acting.
No entanto, with the release of this skin, many fans immediately began discussing whether this could open the doors for other similar concepts to make their way into the game. Possible additions could include She-Hulk for Hulk, Gwen/Ghost Spider for Spider-Man, Captain Carter for Captain America, and Kate Bishop for Hawkeye, among numerous other possibilities.