Fortnite fans are eagerly counting down to the next major shop update, which will bring another long-awaited crossover skin to the game. Confirming previous rumours, former NBA basketball player Shaquille O’Neal has been officially announced as the next celebrity star to join Fortnite. Shaq (and his alter ego DJ Diesel) have been given an October 4 release date in the US and an October 5 launch date in the UK. The Shaq skin, emotes and items will be available when Epic Games refreshes the shop at around 1am BST UK time on October 5.

READ MORE: Fortnite update 31.30 patch notes, Sleep Mode, Fortnitemares, TMNT and Shaq

According to Epic Games, new items include the Shaq (DJ Diesel) Outfit, as well as the Super Shaq Outfit and a couple of emotes.

“A true Shaq of all trades, channel Shaq’s music alter ego with this reactive Outfit that lights up as you rack up eliminations,” reads the DJ Diesel item description. 

The DJ Diesel outfit will also be available in the all black Festival Headliner Variant, while the regular Shaq outfit will come in seven different colours.

New emotes include the ‘One N Twos’ gesture and the ‘Shaq Shimmy’ Emote, which lets players show off Shaq’s signature shimmy.

New items include Shaq’s DJ Decks, the Super Shaw Shield, the Axe-Lifier harvesting tool, the Shaw Attackers and the Shaqsleeves style.

Expect the skins to cost around 2,000 V-bucks, and the Shaq Bundle to be priced at roughly 3,600 V-bucks.

You can check out the Shaq x Fortnite trailer below.

The Shaq skins will be available just hours before the launch of this season’s first major in-game event.

The upcoming Fortnite event takes place at 7pm BST UK time on October 5. 

The teaser trailer for the event sees various Fortnite heroes wake up following some kind of explosion.

It all appears to have something to do with Doctor Doom, who is mentioned in the official teaser by Epic Games.

“Prepare for Doom – Chaos comes to the Island on October 5 at 2PM ET,” Epic explains.