Year 6 of Overwatch is coming to a close, and it looks to be the final full year of Overwatch 1. With the series of betas underway (I’m expecting beta 2 to drop June 7th, Its June 16th) we should finally start getting some new heroes and content. Its been two years since the last hero reveal, so this list has been growing without many additions, but it looks like its finally time to start shaving some characters off! We can expect at least 1 tank and 2 supports going forward among the roles, so that’s exciting.
This year also presented us with some lore too. Not very much, but we still got some good reads. In year 6 we got a great backstory piece in Deadlock Rebels that explored the past of Ashe and the founding of the Deadlock Gang. We got Malevento, a beautiful map that was unfortunately a bit lacking in the lore department. We got Code of Violence, finally answering some burning questions we had about Reaper’s origins as the Reaper and his joining Talon. But most importantly, we got New Blood, the fantastic series of comics that builds up towards Overwatch 2 and finally gives us answers to the Overwatch team that got teased back at BlizzConline.
With the beta, we also received Sojourn as a playable hero after two and a half years, and we got a few new maps as well. New Queen Street, the map that feels so much more distinctly Canadian than any other Canadian map I’ve ever played. Circuit Royale, an exciting Monaco map that is set around a few unique landmarks. Colosseo, a great Italian map with a revival of Roman Gladiators. And Midtown, a map in New York.
With all this excitement, I feel this is a great time for me to re-release my new list of hero speculation, one that I will hopefully be able to update throughout the year this time as we get new heroes, new maps, and lore entries that open up some fresh speculation. Without further ado, here is my (in)complete list of potential heroes:
The “Confirmed” 2:
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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. With the new definition of tanks in Overwatch 2, it feels like there is no better time than now for Mauga to debut with an aggressive berserker barrage.
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The Collective Hero - Esperanca has given us info about the Martins, Claudio and Hector, who invented Hard Glass and used it to keep the forces of the Crisis at bay. I think Claudio and Hector are a bit too old to be the hero themselves, but if it were one of them it would be the Portuguese Claudio over the Venezuelan Hector. If not them, then another hero utilizing “Hard Glass.”
The most likely of the unconfirmed group:
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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.) Shambali Monastery didn’t add any direct hero teasers, but what it did show was a few mining lasers. That is also a possible route Hamid could take.
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Nameless - This character introduction is done in the style where you know they will be coming back in the future. 10 years ago, Nameless helped Ramattra with the founding of Null Sector. 7 years ago they parted ways. This character was developed in surprising detail, especially with questions towards what their “Shadows” are. Unlike Zera, this character I feel will become major.
Likely but Below the Above:
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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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Mohawk Guy - There is a recurring design of a guy with a mohawk and bionic pecs that we have seen in many places involving the Overwatch team, such as the Cinematic Trailer and Recall. Coincidentally, there is also a crouching guy with a mohawk in Ana Origins, the same place where we saw a younger Sojourn (who also appeared in Recall.) There is a third mohawk on Talon’s council of leaders, shown in Masquerade. It is speculation whether any of these are the same person or not, but there is definitely some character with a mohawk who deserves mention
Honourable Mentions:
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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 Hammond, the gladiatorial mech champion) but they are worth mentioning, each with their own pros. My list, sorted in my order of interest:
– Overlord - Has that VTOL mech, the drones, and the minigun. Most interesting mech in my opinion. Also the most likely of the 4 in my opinion.
– Casino - Potential ties to Monaco, maybe ties to Talon. Would be interesting story wise. I’m personally a bit disappointed in the lack of reference he has in Circuit Royale, but I do hope that there is still some connection to be made.
– 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.) Baptiste’s updated bio also helps his case, calling him a “Talon Soldier” rather explicitly, which is new and helps his chances.
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Stone Anthony - It would be a first if this character were added, as he was introduced in voice line dialogue between Ashe and Cassidy. Now, normally I wouldn’t add a character based on that, we’ve had a few old story characters brought up like this in the past. But what makes this uncanny is Junkrat brings him up too.
For updates from my previous list, I mostly just removed Frankie. Frankie was another purple haired North American hacker gangster. She was written with a design that is way too similar to Sombra, so if we do get another hacker, it will probably be Lynx.
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 always open to editing the list and happy to discuss future speculation! Hopefully this year, this thread can turn into a bit of a megathread for speculation once we start getting new heroes and major content drops again.
EDIT 1 (MAY 23) : I have added a new category betweel Most Likely and Honourable Mentions, and I put Sanjay there. I also added a new character, the Mohawk Guy, there as well.
EDIT 2 (JUNE 12): Junker Queen has been announced as hero 34, and removed from the list. We also saw a fox in gameplay, so I am moving the Kanezaka hero up from the top of Most Likely to Confirmed.
EDIT 3 (SEP 15): The Kanezaka hero, Kiriko, has just made her debut as hero #35. I removed her from the list, and in her place added the Portugal Hero a bit pre-emptively. We were told we will be seeing hero hints for a hero on the new map, so with that we have a character that is basically confirmed en route.
EDIT 4 (OCT 4): Replaced the placeholder Portugal hero with a hero related to The Collective. Potentially Claudio. Also added Anubis because of the bios and its suddenly responsible for the whole Omnic Crisis?
EDIT 5 (NOV 5): We got Ramattra yesterday. Removed him from the list. Also with suggestion from the comments, I have downgraded Anubis from likely to honourable mention. Part of his presence in the list was because of the recency from Esperanca, but now that we have received Ramattra I can safely downgrade him
EDIT 6 (DEC 7): Ramattra’s Reflections released, and we learn a bit more about the faces behind the founding of Null Sector. I have added Nameless to the most likely category, and I have removed Anubis and Lynx 17 entirely. It feels like Nameless, with their identical character design, straight up replaces Lynx as a hero candidate. As for Anubis, Ramattra gives a lot more insight into the story behind Anubis, and seems to have been originally a concept of a playable Anubis. I think both of these characters have been replaced. I haven’t removed Kace yet though, I’ll leave him on the list until we get more Null Sector lore. Shambali Temple didn’t have too much hero news in it, but I threw a dart at the Hamid Faisal wall for that one.
“You think you’ve learned what it means to be human while trapped under Overwatch’s rule? You’ve learned nothing of them yet.” “I think you’re the one that’s trapped, --REDACTED–”