Pixar's Hoppers hit theaters this weekend, but thanks to a Fortnite collab, Tom Lizard was already trending online after taking over the gaming community.
Fans first fell in love with Tom Lizard after the end credits of Pixar's Elio last summer. The post-credit moment showed the lizard repeatedly typing the lizard emoji into a phone. A month later, Pixar revealed the character's name was Tom and confirmed he would be in Hoppers.
To coincide with the release of the movie on March 6th, a Hoppers cosmetics bundle was released in Fortnite. This included a Tom Lizard player skin, which gamers are already obsessed with it.
Tom Lizard x Fortnite collab
It's safe to say that Tom Lizard is Pixar's newest icon, and Fortnite players are having a blast with him in the game. Even people involved in the movie's production got in on the action.
"Why we made this movie," Hoppers director Daniel Chong joked on Twitter.
Fans flocked to social media sites to share in-game interactions and the whole squad dressed as Tom Lizard.
However, some people found the character's fast rise to fame to be suspicious, considering the Fortnite collab dropped the day before the movie premiered in studios.
"How does everyone already love him if the movie isn’t out yet. Industry plant," @genosdawn tweeted.
"Not [an] industry plant if he earned the popularity. Been seeing this everywhere ever since the trailer dropped," @ieatburgur replied.
"Industry plants are characters nobody cares about, framed as something everyone loves... Yet, pretty much everyone loves this silly lil lizard," @PokiBread added.
Many folks are sharing their gameplay on TikTok.
While others have complaints. "I was excited to get the skin, but besides the funny eyes randomly moving, it shows no other emotion when doing other emotes. And for that, I canceled the purchase," @DeathPointZ1 tweeted.
Meanwhile, some Fortnite fans are comparing Tom Lizard to Lizzik.
"I love both. I vote for more doofuses," u/RainyDayBrat commented.
"Nah, these are actually hilarious. I'd rock either one just for the meme factor alone. Epic's been going wild with collab skins, but the goofy originals always hit different," u/Starliightdusk added.
Others are chiming in to share that the Fortnite hype is causing them to consider watching Hoppers, which was the whole point of the collab in the first place.
Tom Lizard, you will always be famous.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.
