The Redditor who originally leaked MultiVersus has claimed that the Tolkien Estate is stopping Gandalf from appearing in the game.
Considering MultiVersus is a game all about Warner Bros. properties fighting against each other, one of the most obvious character picks is Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. As it turns out, Gandalf has actually been planned for the game since its launch, with various bits of data within the game referencing him, and even screenshots of him being found in the original design document.
Despite plenty of evidence pointing to Gandalf eventually making it into MultiVersus, he was nowhere to be seen when the game launched last week, and dataminers have indicated that all references to the character have been completely scrubbed from the game, implying that the character has been put on the shelf for now.
Redditor hugeleakeractually, who initially revealed the existence of MultiVersus to the world, has been asked about Gandalf's inclusion in the game and has claimed that the reason he's had so much trouble is because of the Tolkien Estate. After one Redditor expressed annoyance at the idea of Gandalf not making it into the game, hugeleakeractually responded, "It’s not looking good, blame Tolkien Estate".
Although hugeleakeractually has been wrong about some details to do with MultiVersus in the past, such as initially claiming that it was NetherRealm Studios working on the game, they got most of their information correct, so it seems likely that they've got some insider information on the game. If so, it seems that copyright issues, specifically to do with Tolkien Estate, are what's holding Gandalf back from being included in MultiVersus.
If hugeleakeractually is to be believed and it is a problem with Tolkien Estate, it's not clear why it would have a problem with Gandalf appearing in MultiVersus, as the character has appeared in countless other video games and had tons of cameos across different mediums. It could simply want more money for the character's likeness, but for now it seems that the character isn't coming to the game anytime soon.