Now that the 5th year of Overwatch had come and gone, and quite a few things have happened since my last post in year 4. We got the great Hero of Numbani, the even greater Deadlock Rebels, a nice short story in Stone By Stone, we got the fantastic map Kanezaka, we got to see more of OW2’s exciting future at Blizzconline, and we also had London Calling. I feel like it is a great time to re-make my speculation list for heroes.
The “Confirmed” 2:
- Junkerqueen - Confirmed to have big plans, potentially seen in OW2 - Big plans most likely means that she will be a hero. During Blizzconline, we saw a segment where we caught a glimpse of hands and a shape that matched her axe, which looks like the first person assets for Junkerqueen.
- Mauga - Confirmed to be someone they are looking at making a hero - When Sigma took his place, the devs said that they were gonna go look at Mauga again, and hoped that they could make him into his own hero. His popularity hasn’t gone down, and he is still a popular request.
The most likely of the unconfirmed group:
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Kanezaka Hero - This can be either Asa Yamagami, or her daughter. Asa was the swordmaster who trained Genji/Hanzo, while her daughter may or may not be the vigilante that isn’t playing by the Hashimoto’s rules. Either way, this teaser was very familiar to how Hammond was teased with the release of Horizon Lunar Colony, or Sombra with Dorado. I see this as the most likely character.
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The Null Sector Omnic from Storm Rising - Has no name, but was confirmed to be part of Null Sector (if it wasn’t obvious from the context of the discussion/purple.) Will probably be playable in OW2. I see this as the second most likely character.
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Hamid Faisal - The archeologist from Petra. Also has ties to Overwatch/Ana/Jack, as well as a bunch of other maps that are lacking in ties like Ilios, Ayutthaya, and Oasis. Archeologists are also always popular characters (Indiana Jones, Nathan Drake, Spelunky, etc.)
Honourable Mentions:
Novel characters. Novel Spoilers within.
- Frankie - Frankie should be mentioned, but only her. She was the hacker that was one of the 4 founding members of the Deadlock Rebels. Unfortunately, she was described as kind of looking like Sombra. It was hard to read it and not picture a younger Sombra in her place. I think the similarity hurts the odds for this other hacker gangster, but of all the novel characters she is the only one who I feel has a real chance over other friends and foes in Julian, Bez, or Marco. Bisi from Hero of Numbani is in the same group as those 3.
Honourable Mentions without spoilers:
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Sanjay Korpal - Sym’s boss, Talon council member. A pretty prominent character that hasn’t had much of a spotlight. He did get another role in Stone By Stone that made him seem a little more friendly, perhaps trying to warm us up to him as a playable character? Hard Light means that Sanjay has infinite possibilities for his kit. Also my personal top desire.
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Lynx-17 - Fairly popular and unique omnic. Brings a different take to hacking, if they feel like revisiting the mechanic or making a more supportive version of Sombra. Hasn’t been mentioned since their debut in Searching, and their popularity has sort of waned. What’s worse is that both novels showed off purple haired hackers (Sombra and Frankie ) which kinda makes Lynx feel less special as a hacker.
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Kace - I was really disappointed in London Calling. One thing I thought we might see from it would be a character who could become a hero in the future. Unfortunately, Iggy and Kace both seemed to be non-combatants, and I would be very surprised if Iggy appeared again in the future. Kace might pop up as an NPC in Overwatch 2, I don’t think the path of becoming a hero is as likely though.
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Sven - I would love to see Sven make a comeback. I think that he could be an interesting character, sort of a standalone mercenary/profiteer. He reminds me of Kano from Mortal Kombat, but through his Ironclad ties, he could be an interesting take on the builder archetype. He also had a stun gun in the comic Destroyer, which was his last mention.
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MEKA Pilot - There are 4 of them. Casino, D.Mon, Overlord, and King. Each of them have their own mech with their own potential. The problem is the mechs might make them too similar to D.Va (and Junkerqueen/Hammond, the gladiatorial mech champions) but they are worth mentioning, each with their own pros. My list, sorted in my order of interest:
– Casino - Potential ties to Monaco, maybe ties to Talon. Would be interesting story wise.
– Overlord - Has that VTOL mech, the drones, and the minigun. Most interesting mech in my opinion.
– King - D.Va’s rival. Also has that cool artillery cannon on his mech.
– D.Mon - D.Va’s teammate. Also the only girl, which is probably why she’s the most popular. I think her mech looks boring personally. -
Analyst Nguyen - This is sort of a wildcard. He’s not a very popular character, but every time I go back to What You Left Behind I’m drawn to him. He does fit an archetype that’s missing from our villains, but is also shown to be a rather adept combatant. There is tons of potential here, since we only saw his skill with a standard handgun (ironically, a weapon archetype that feels like its missing in this game.)
Of course, there are tons of other characters that could be discussed as well. I would love to see this thread used to discuss other possibilities, either from the comics, short stories, maps, or other pieces of the lore. I’d also love to see some discussion based on my prediction list as well, maybe even something to argue them as more or less likely. I am open to editing the list.
EDIT: Its Feb 1st. I deleted Iggy after looking at this list again. She has pretty much no chance now that we have a good comic run in New Blood, in my eyes.
