- Black Cat and White Fox will make their debut in Season 7: The Hunt is On, launching on March 20, 2026.
- This update is one of the most significant balance overhauls since the game’s launch, with every single hero receiving adjustments and a global nerf to ultimate charge rate.
- A new Convergence map called Lower Manhattan is also arriving, tied directly into the Season 7 story of Kingpin attempting to cleanse New York City of super-powered vigilantes
Marvel Rivals Season 7 is two days away, and the hype is already at a level that makes every previous season look like a quiet Tuesday. NetEase came in swinging with a trailer, a story reveal, two new heroes, a brand new map, and a balance patch so sweeping that practically nothing will play the same way when servers come back online Friday morning.
If you thought Season 6 and Deadpool were a tough act to follow, buckle up.
Two New Heroes and They Could Not Be More Different
Black Cat is a master thief who undertakes high-stakes heists, while White Fox is a South Korean superhero who can shapeshift into a nine-tailed fox. On paper, they sound like complete opposites. In practice, that’s exactly what makes this duo so exciting.
Black Cat is expected to be a Duelist given her feline-like agility, and players can expect her to have a team-up ability with Spider-Man. A heist-themed character with Spider-Man synergy is the kind of combination that writes itself. The main stage fights are about to look very different.
White Fox, meanwhile, is a versatile Strategist who can buff teammates, instantly assist allies from afar, and unleash her true nine-tailed fox form with her Ultimate. She has a complete toolkit, including healing, crowd control, mobility, buffs, debuffs, and damage. A Strategist with that much going on is either going to be the most broken support in the game or the most satisfying one to master. Possibly both.
The Meta Is About to Get Completely Flipped
Here’s the part that has the competitive community buzzing even louder than the new hero reveals. The main change is a global nerf reducing the rate at which ultimates are built by 20% for all heroes. This is the first such change in the game’s history, and it should slow down the pace of matches and reduce the impact of ultimates on the outcome of battles.
Twenty per cent. Across every single character. All at once. That’s not a tweak. That’s a complete philosophical reset of how the game flows.
Heroes dominant in the current meta have been nerfed, including Captain America, Doctor Strange, Emma Frost, and Hawkeye, while several less popular characters have received significant buffs, including Hulk, Magneto, Iron Man, and Psylocke. The Iron Man and Hulk buffs alone are going to have people reinstalling the game just to see what’s possible now.
New York, Kingpin, and a Story That’s Actually Getting Good
Modern-day New York is facing a temporal siege, with forces from 2099’s Nueva York pouring into the city and turning it into ground zero for their expansion. Into that chaos steps Wilson Fisk, and his solution is as Kingpin as it gets.
The story revolves around Kingpin, the mayor, attempting to clean the city of super-powered vigilantes. A new Lower Manhattan map drops alongside the story, and the whole thing feeds into something even bigger. A Path to Doomsday event is also coming, connecting Marvel Rivals with upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe lore, likely beginning in Season 7.5. NetEase is quietly building something here that goes well beyond a hero shooter seasonal update.
Season 7 launches this Friday. The servers go down for maintenance first, and when they come back up, nothing is going to play the way it did before. That’s not a warning. That’s a promise.
