Overwatch has only been out for one year and it quickly became one of the biggest video games of the modern generation. The game's sale numbers quickly hit the millions, and the player base is constantly growing and stronger than ever more than a year into the game's life. One of the best things about Overwatch are the heroes you can play as. They're all incredibly unique and it's easy to see all the effort that went into designing the characters. No two characters feel alike, ranging from how they play to the backstories of them. Tons of sweat and tears went into the game and it created the amazing game we all know and love today. The game currently boasts 25 unique heroes, 4 of them added into the game after its release. While some of the backstories and histories of the characters can be seen in the game itself with dialogue between characters. However, the Overwatch heroes have a lot more than meets the eye going on with them. By looking at interviews with developers, art books, and the official forums, we can learn so much more about the heroes of Overwatch. Luckily for you, we've gathered all sorts of awesome trivia and awesome development facts that'll blow you away. We will be looking at one piece of trivia for every hero in Overwatch. From Doomfist to Zenyatta, these facts are bound to be something you never knew about the characters of the Overwatch world. Let's get down to busꦅiness, and get to the list.
25 ဣ He Wasn't Even Supposed ♎To Be Here!
Doomfist is the most recent addition to the cast of characters in Overwatch, despite technically being there in the first cinematic trailer. Granted, the trailer simply had Doomfist's Gauntlet, but the⛦ first stepping stones to design the hero were there. However, Doomfist wasn't originally intended to be in the game to begin with. Originally, the name Doomfist was meant to be a throwaway title for the gauntlet itself and wasn't intended to be re-visited at all. He would later be given early concept art and despite never intending to be, would be worked on behind the scenes for quite some time. Despite multiple teases for his release, Blizzard would throw a curve ball and end up releasing Orisia, an Omnic built to defend Numbani from Doomfist before his official release.
24 When One🗹 Hero Bec🎀omes Two
Genji is oneℱ of the two Shimada Brothers along with Hanzo. The cyborg ninja that always needs healing is one of the harder heroes to master in the game, and there's a lot of content packed into one character, which makes this fact even harder to believe. Originally, Hanzo and Genji were the same character, and Genji's character design, namely his robotic body, was what Hanzo's once was during early stages of development. He sported the grey armor with green lights but would also wear Hanzo's current clothing and wielded a bow. The development choice could be the reason why they made Genji and Hanzo brothers in the first place, because they were at one point in development one in the same character bꦡefore he was officially released to the public as the two.
23 💃 Does This Confirm Half-Life 3?
It's no secret that Overwatch references and takes inspiration from all sorts of media and other video games. This is most prominently seen in McCree, the cowboy with a cyborg arm. There's obvious inspiration from old cowboy westerns with his mannerisms and dialogue. A more obscure source of inspiration would be with McCree's weapon his Peacekeeper. A tweet from Danny O'Dwyer, who worked on a short documentary on the development of Overwatch, shared that a cut scene stated that the gun is based on the Colt Python from Half-Life. It isn't the first time Overwatch borrowed from Valve games, as many comparisons could be made with Overwatch and one of Valve's biggest titles Team Fortress 2. This is most noticeable with Payload maps and similarities between characters like the Medic from TF2 and Mercy.
22 ꦐ Gender Is Just A Social Construct, I Guess ♕
Pharah was one of the first characters every designed for Overwatch. She was originally called "Rocket Dude" in the testing stages and would go through many changes in development. In these early stages, Pharah was a male, and his outfit used little to no armor. One resembled a pilot with aviators with a jetpack attached to him and another one with a similar design though heavier set. Pharah would later be made female and originally given a Gundam-styled mech, not unlike D. Va. Pharah would then be given her armor and her design would eventually fall on the blue armored woman we see today. Pharah ended up going through many changes, but it is safe to say that h🐬er final design was the right way to go with her.
21 𒁏 The Guns Pack A Big Boom
Reaper is one of the most apparent villains in the Overwatch canon. Since the initial cinematic trailer, he was always painted as such and continued to be the bad guy in most of the cinematic shorts where he is featured. Originally a hero of Overwatch, after something happened he became the Reaper he is now. This fact will look at a seemingly cut feature from Reaper's design. In the f♑irst cinem🍒atic trailer, Reaper's shotguns can shoot out grenades on top of the bullets. Despite this being a somewhat big part of the animation, this feature would never be seen again, in both the game and any other trailers. The reason for this feature being cut is currently unknown, but it's interesting to see, since the other abilities seen in the trailers made the transition into the game.
20 𒆙 Can We Get A Skin Of This At Least? ♋
Sometimes, the developers brought in their old ideas to be tossed into the ring of Overwatch, and former Senior Vice President of Creative Design and Story Development Chris Metzen (and voice of Bastion) would bring just that over. Soldier 76 was once an unpublished comic book character. The final design and the design of the comic version of Soldier 76 are near identical, the only major difference is the lack of a ski mask. Since Solider 76 was already designed as a character with a backstory, his abilities would be built around this. He was designed to make it easier for traditional first-person shooter players to make the jump to Overwatch, and h🔯e is the hero with the closet tool kit to more traditional shooter games.
19 🔴 The Girl With No Name
Sombra had the most infamous development in Overwatch's current history. She had an incredibly long "ARG" that was more tedious than enjoyable to many fans of the game. When Sombra ended up finally being released, she was met with lackluster praise and painted as a bad character by much of the general audience when she came out. Despite all this, Sombra has a very complex and interesting backstory. She is a hacker that is making her way to the top by making connections. However, Sombra is the only character in Overwatch tha🉐t does not have a public real name. She is simply known as "Som𝓀bra" because she deleted her old personality so she could not be tracked down. All other characters have revealed their name (some from Sombra herself).
18 Showiꩲng Her Pride 🤡
Tracer is the mascot for Overwatch, appearing on much of the promotional material and the cover of the game itself, a life-sized statue is even on Blizzard's campus. Tracer was taken from Blizzard's canceled game Titan, which would indirectly lead to Overwatch's creation. Due to this, Tracer was one of the first characters developed for the game, and as such is considered the "Rosetta Stone" of the game. She never was indented to be the mascot character, but Chris Metzen stated that T🦂racer was "one of the first charac🍸ters we really got to know" and that Tracer would end up becoming loved internally. A bonus, more well-known fact is that Tracer is the currently the only character to be confirmed as "LGBT," specifically she is canonically lesbian.
17 He's A Regular S﷽now White
Bastion is one of the more interesting characters in Overwatch. An omnic relic of the war, now one in love with nature. However, Bastion does appear to suffer a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as seen in his animated short. However, the bird he befriends helps to keep him calm. There are many omnics in the rooster, such as Zenyatta and Orisia. However, Bastion is the only character in Overwatch that is officially genderless, and is always referred to as "it." Bastion has a surprisingly rich backstory for a seemingly simple character. There were multiple Bastion units and the Bastion that appears as a hero in Overwatch is the last of his kind, seen in the title of hi🔜s short "The Last Bast☂ion."
16 Thou Shalt Not Say Hanzo Mai♒n ♏
Hanzo probably has the largest internet following, generally for bad reasons. The term "Hanzo Main" being thrown around as an insult, a girl in school once got in trouble by calling a classmate that. Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch's Game Director once jokingly stated in an acceptance speech that it went out to "All the Hanzo Mains." There was something else that Hanzo would get, a whole church based around him. A Brazilian Overwatch fan set up the National Church of Hanzo in order to prove how easy it was to open a church. Some fun facts about the religion are that you can request Tuesdays off for religious studies, and are actually forbidden to use the words "Hanzo Main." Baptism for the religion is playing one game of Overwatch, but if you can't afford it, Paladins will ༺also work.