Characters of the Overwatch franchise

Overwatch, now completely replaced by Overwatch 2 and later rebranded to Overwatch, was an online team-oriented first-person shooter, and an example of a "hero shooter" where players select from one of several pre-designed hero characters with their own unique abilities. Overwatch included casual play modes, competitive ranked play modes, and various arcade modes with special rules applied to the base play modes. Most game modes featured two six-player teams competing in one of several objective-based game types: Control, assault, payload, and hybrid. Overwatch 2 retains most of its predecessor's gameplay and content with some changes. People play on two teams of five rather than six players and the game type "assault" was removed after much criticism from the player base. Heroes were given new designs, with some of them receiving entirely new abilities. A match starts with each player selecting from one of the available hero characters. The game's characters are divided into three role classifications: damage, tank, and support. Damage characters are often doing the most damage and help the team with the majority of kills. Tank characters can absorb large amounts of damage for the team, and support characters can heal their teammates and provide status effects for the team or against enemies. The game will warn teams if they have an imbalance in their general role selection, and many game modes require players to select a certain amount of heroes from each role. Players are able to switch between heroes mid-match after they are killed or if they return to their team's base. Each hero character has fundamentally different attributes such as health and movement speed, at least one basic attack, and at least one unique skill, collectively referred to as a skill kit. These skills can be used repeatedly after waiting out the skill's cooldown period. Each character also has at least one powerful ultimate ability that becomes available once its meter is charged, either slowly over time or through other actions such as killing opponents or healing teammates. Once the ultimate ability is used, the player has to wait for the meter to fill again. All characters have a close-combat, low damage melee attack that can be used at any time. In the original Overwatch, winning matches earned the player experience towards levels in the meta-game. The player earned a loot box on reaching a new experience level, which contained a random assortment of character skins, emotes, voice lines, and other cosmetic items for each character without altering gameplay. Players could also purchase loot boxes with real-world money. Blizzard provided free post-release content for the game, such as new maps and characters. In Overwatch 2, the loot box system was entirely scrapped in favor of a battle pass system. After playing a game, the player would earn points that contributed to their progression in the battle pass, unlocking new cosmetics along the way. At the launch of Overwatch 2, new hero characters could either be acquired through purchase and completion of the battle pass in some seasons, or later by completing specific challenges; since early 2024, Blizzard has scraped this approach, making all new heroes available to all during specific seasons. Blizzard also brought back loot boxes as means for earning cosmetic items in February 2025, though such loot boxes are only learnable within game or through promotions, and have fixed odds at rare or more exclusive rewards to mitigate gambling concerns. The February 2025 update also saw the introduction of perks, two sets of two skill modifications for each character they can gain during a match. At a new tier level during a match, a player can select one of these predefined perks from the pair. ==Overview==

Overwatch originally featured 12 characters at its November 2014 BlizzCon convention announcement, Critics widely praised the game's accessible and detailed character design and its role in the game's overall success. Similar to Valve's initial launch of Team Fortress 2, in the absence of a dedicated story mode, Blizzard tells the backstory of Overwatch plot and characters through media outside the game, including animated shorts, character press events, tweets, and webcomics. The game's story centers around a technological singularity in which humanity assembles a team of its best heroes, Overwatch, to fight off a rogue artificial intelligence and its robotic army of Omnics in an incident called the "Omnic Crisis". After winning its battle, the Overwatch kept the peace for about three decades before infighting led to its disbandment. The game takes place approximately sixty years in the future, during a time period in which the world is slipping into disarray, and former Overwatch members, along with new allies and enemies, are being called on to help protect the peace in their respective favor. Among Overwatch's enemies are Talon, a global criminal network seeking wealth and power. In early 2016, Blizzard released media kits with granular character detail for fan artists and cosplayers. ==Development==

Overwatch was developed by Blizzard following the cancellation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan, a project that had been in works for several years. A smaller team from those on Titan were given the role to come up with a new project, and they came onto the idea of a first-person shooter that emphasized teamwork, inspired by Team Fortress 2 and the rising popularity of multiplayer online battle arenas, as well as their own development team unity they found to keep their morale high following Titans cancellation. The development team settled on a narrative of a near-future Earth setting following a global-scale catastrophic event - the Omnic Crisis, in which robots, known as Omnics, rose up in rebellion against humanity until stopped by a peacekeeping group known as Overwatch. With selection of this global theme, the developers wanted to create a cast of playable characters to portray diverse representations of genders, ages, ethnicities, and nationalities. The heroes include human, transhuman, and non-human characters such as cyborgs, robots, and a talking gorilla. Kaplan explained that the industry was "clearly in an age where gaming is for everybody", going on to say that "increasingly, people want to feel represented, from all walks of life, boys and girls, everybody. We feel indebted to do our best to honor that." In addition, Blizzard stated at the 2016 Blizzcon that some of the characters are LGBT, though did not specify which ones at that time. Blizzard has stated that "As with any aspect of our characters' backgrounds, their sexuality is just one part of what makes our heroes who they are." Since then, Tracer has been shown to be in a romantic relationship with another woman through one of the tie-in comics published online by Blizzard. In a subset lore story, Soldier: 76 was also identified as gay, having had a romantic relationship with a man prior to joining Overwatch. A research paper analyzed this announcement and found that players avoided Soldier: 76 afterwards. However, the pick rate returned to previous levels after around three months. The team envisioned the characters akin to superheroes in this narrative, each with their own abilities, background and personality that could stand on their own, but could also fit into the larger story; this notion translated into the characters being agents for the game, which Metzen said still captures the "heroism and vibe" that superhero stories carry. The team did not want to have any characters that served solely as villains in the game, but did develop some of the characters, like Soldier: 76, to have an uncertain purpose within the narrative. Characters introduced since the game's release are generally teased a few weeks in advance or given a cold surprise announcement. The only exception to this had been Sombra, who had been teased by a months-long alternate reality game (ARG) before her formal announcement. Blizzard found that players reacted negatively to this deployment and have opted to avoid this type of prolonged teasing for future characters. Blizzard will still seed upcoming hero characters into the game's announcement media but without making comments towards that, anticipating players would find these before the character is officially announced; for example, the 26th hero Moira had appeared in at least two works before her announcement. Once a character is announced, they are typically made available on the "Public Test Region" (PTR) for Windows players to try out and help provide feedback to Blizzard. Once Blizzard is satisfied with the PTR character, typically a period lasting two to three weeks, the character is then released to all players on all regions and platforms, outside of competitive play, giving players a chance to learn the character. Roughly a week following this, the new character then becomes available for competitive play mode. Character powers are frequently tweaked and adjusted with patches, mostly incremental changes. A few characters have had major overhauls, notably Symmetra (with two separate overhauls of her skill), Mercy, and Torbjörn. Like new characters, these overhauls are tested in the PTR before being released to all public regions. One notable change in June 2018 reduced the number of roles from four to three (combining "offense" and "defense" heroes into the "damage" category) in the PTR before being released for all players. With the introduction of Echo, the 32nd hero to Overwatch, in March 2020, Kaplan stated that the team's focus was now on Overwatch 2 and it was unlikely they would release any additional heroes before the game's release. Overwatch 2 was released in open early access with its PvP mode in October 2022, with the PvE mode to come later in 2023. While there was some intent to have a shared multiplayer experience between Overwatch and Overwatch 2 at announcement, Overwatch 2 instead replaced Overwatch entirely; It released as a free to play title, with the player's cosmetics brought over into Overwatch 2. Overwatch 2 was designed to play faster and avoid the slow pace that some Overwatch games had become, in part due to the use of "crowd control" (CC) abilities to hamper progress. To correct this, Overwatch 2 is nominally played with five players on each team, with role-fixed games using two damage, two support, and one tank. This necessitated changes to several characters' skill kits to match; notably, Orisa's kit has a significant rework to remove her shield and her CC abilities, while Doomfist was reworked from damage into a tank class. Overwatch 2 also launched with three new heroes, bringing the total roster to 35 by October 2022. Initially, new heroes for Overwatch 2 were introduced as a free unlock on a seasonal battle pass with a means to acquire them later through other challenges by players that did not purchase the battle pass, but since March 2024, Blizzard has made new heroes available to all players without any purchase. New characters introduced to the game around 2025, including Hazard and Wuyang, were designed to be more aspirational through personal struggles and challenges, allowing players to connect with characters, according to lead concept artist Daryl Tan. This direction meant that the character design team was moving away from "oddball" characters, like Wrecking Ball and Ramattra, in favor of more conventional designs, according to Tan, but they still plan to introduce more of these unusual characters in the future. ==Characters==

Tank heroes Tank characters broadly have a high number of hit points and are often at the front line of a team. In the original Overwatch, some tanks had high defensive capability at the cost of lower mobility and offensive capabilities (like Reinhardt), while others exchanged this defensive capability for greater mobility and offensive capabilities (like Wrecking Ball). In Overwatch 2, all tank characters were given upgrades to compensate for going from two teams of six players to two teams of five players, with one tank per team. These upgrades gave all tanks more offensive or defensive capabilities. D.Va D.Va, real name Hana Song, is a South Korean mecha pilot and former pro gamer from Busan. During the Omnic war, when Omnic forces threatened Korea, D.Va and other pro gamers were brought into the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army (MEKA), using mecha suits to defend the country. D.Va pilots a large mech that is capable of short bursts of movement and limited flight. She can constantly fire fusion cannons along with a short burst of micro-missiles, or can use the mech's defense matrix to briefly destroy all enemy fire it is directed at. If the mech takes too much damage, D.Va ejects and can flee while armed with a pistol until she can call the mech again. She can also eject and cause her mech to self-destruct like a bomb, dealing lethal damage any enemy within line of sight of the explosion. D.Va is voiced by Charlet Chung. As originally released in Overwatch, Doomfist was classified as a Damage hero, but was reworked to become a Tank hero in Overwatch 2, giving him more health and damage resistance. As a tank in his current kit, Doomfist can use the gauntlet that fires shotgun-like bursts, can be charged up to deliver a powerful punch at foes, or can be used to block damage. He also can jump and lunge a great distance, striking the ground to do a short-range damage strike, and his ultimate allows him to jump out of reach and target a small area for dealing high damage to all enemies within it. Doomfist is voiced by Sahr Ngaujah. is a Scottish member of the Phreaks, a punk-like revolutionary group, and outfitted with several illicit cybernetic attachments. His primary attack is Bonespur, his arm augment that fires a shotgun-like spread of crystal spikes. He can perform a Violent Leap towards an enemy and slash them with a blade from his other arm. His Spike Guard grants him temporary damage reduction while launching homing spikes at enemies; this ability also reloads ammunition for Bonespur. He can further create a Jagged Wall in front of him that knocks back foes near it and continues to hurt them if they get close, while also providing temporary cover for Hazard and his teammates. Hazard possesses a passive Vault ability that lets him climb over small walls and obstacles, including his Jagged Wall. His ultimate is Downpour, launching spikes from his back that fall onto enemies, damaging and immobilizing them for a brief period. After leaving his broken home, he enlisted in the armed forces to earn money for a university education, but was caught in the crashing of a downed Overwatch jet, costing him both legs and an arm. Though fitted with standard prosthetics and paid for his service, Hazard sought out the Phreaks, who dealt with illegal body modifications. The Phreaks helped to outfit him with new powerful augmentations, and he joined their goal to break down the "system" of the elites in the world. During a raid on Moira's laboratory at Oasis University, Hazard absorbed an unstable form of vanadium ferrofluid under study there (the map having reflected this change in Season 13). The element gave Hazard superhuman powers including the ability to form and launch spikes at enemies. According to Blizzard's lead gameplay designer Alec Dawson, their goal with Hazard was to create a versatile tank hero that could play well both offensively and defensively, with high mobility using the Vault and Violent Leap abilities. Hazard was originally named "Spiker" in early development, intended to be a major villain character, but over time, they refined his personality to have more "rebellious charm" while still retaining his powerful form. Hazard is voiced by Conor McLeod. Junker Queen Junker Queen, real name Odessa "Dez" Stone, is the new ruler of Junkertown, a ramshackle city in the Australian Outback. While a child, her family was banished from Junkertown, but she came back and competed in "The Reckoning", besting the Junkertown leader and seizing the position for herself. She also oversees the city's combat arena, the Scrapyard, where Wrecking Ball became her champion. Junker Queen's primary weapon is a hit scan shotgun called Scattergun. Through her passive ability Adrenaline Rush, all of her melee attacks deal wound damage that drains enemy health over a short time while healing her. Her Commanding Shout buffs nearby allies with speed and temporary bonus health. Her Jagged Blade ability lashes a throwing knife at a foe that can be recalled by her magnetic fist, causing wound damage to opponents. She can use her Carnage ability to strike with her ax in a heavy melee attack. Her ultimate ability is Rampage, which wounds and debuffs all enemy players it reaches. Junker Queen is voiced by Leah de Niese, He wields two chain guns that be fired individually or simultaneously, with the effect of igniting foes and then doing critical damage on them. He can also charge forward and end with a ground stomp, damaging and stunning nearby enemies. His ultimate chains enemies within a temporarily field that prevents from escaping and blocks external damage and healing. Mauga is voiced by John Tui. With her current kit, she has a machine gun that briefly stops firing if it overheats, and a javelin that she can either throw at an enemy, or briefly spin quickly to block damage while charging forward. She can also fortify herself to increase damage resistance and neutralize crowd control debuffs, though slows her movement while active. Her ultimate is charged attack that can draw in enemies from around her before she slams the ground and dealing damage to all within range. Ramattra is voiced by Ramon Tikaram. Reinhardt Reinhardt Wilhelm is a German soldier and adventurer. He was a decorated Bundeswehr veteran from Stuttgart under Colonel Balderich von Alder during the Omnic wars. When Balderich was mortally wounded in defending Eichenwalde, he gave Reinhardt his invitation to join Overwatch. Reinhardt remained with Overwatch until he retired, but answered Winston's call when Overwatch was reactivated. Reinhardt wields a rocket hammer that can be used for melee strikes or send out a fire projectile, and can deploy a barrier field to block damage for himself and allies. He can use his armor to charge across maps, including catching a foe in his path and crushing them against an obstacle. His ultimate is a powerful earthshatter strike with his hammer that damages and stuns enemies in front of him. Reinhardt is voiced by Darin De Paul. enforcer and bodyguard. He wields a Scrap Gun that fires shrapnel in a mid-range automatic firing mode, or a short-range shotgun-like single shot. He also carries a NOS canister filled with "Hogdrogen" to self-heal (Take a Breather), and employs a Chain Hook to pull distant opponents towards him. His ultimate ability, Whole Hog, allows him to put a top loader into his scrap gun, firing it in full auto mode with increased knockback, wider spread, and no need to reload. Within a November 2023 patch to Overwatch 2, Roadhog's kit was modified slightly to address some of the incohesiveness of the original kit. The Scrap Gun was made into a single firing mode that has both a short-range shotgun burst in addition to mid-range projectiles. Take a Breather was changed to be a resource-based healing mode, allowing the player to use as much stored Hogdrogen to heal Roadhog, along with a shorter cooldown period. Finally, a new second ability, Pig Pen, was added, allowing Roadhog to lay down a trap that can slow and damage enemies that cross it, including those pulled in by Roadhog's Chain Hook. This was reverted in a future patch, removing Roadhog's Pig pen ability. Roadhog is voiced by Josh Petersdorf. His main weapons are Hyperspheres, gravitic projectiles that can bounce off walls and damage a small area that draw foes into the explosion, and Accretion, which gathers debris into a large projectile to kinetically throw at opponents, causing knockback. He also has two defensive abilities: Experimental Barrier, a barrier that he can deployed outward in front of him to a variable distance and then recall it, upon which it starts regenerating any damage taken; and Kinetic Grasp, which creates a field that absorbs projectiles and converts them into temporary health for the character. His ultimate, Gravitic Flux, allows him to fly up briefly to place a black hole on the ground. Any opponents trapped within the range of the hole are thrown up into the air for several seconds before being slammed to the ground, taking half of their maximum health on impact. Sigma is voiced by Boris Hiestand. Winston Winston is an intelligent, genetically engineered gorilla, one of several created at the Horizon Lunar Colony on the Moon by Dr. Harold Winston (from which Winston took his name) and his team. The other gorillas revolted against the human scientists, killing them, while Winston took an escape pod to return to Earth. There, he joined up with Overwatch, using his scientific knowledge to help the team. Winston remained at the Gibraltar base when Overwatch was first disbanded, but was the one to reactive the team upon seeing the Null Sector threat. He wields a tesla cannon that can shoot short bursts of electricity in front of him or a charged ranged shot. He can leap a great distance, damaging foes near where he lands, and he can place a spherical dome shield. In his ultimate, he becomes enraged, gaining powerful melee strikes and longer leaping distances to tear through enemy lines. Winston is voiced by Crispin Freeman. Wrecking Ball Hammond, ring name Wrecking Ball, is a super-intelligent hamster mechanic, also created by the Horizon Moon Colony scientists. As Winston planned his escape during the gorilla revolution, Hammond also planned his own escape in a spherical pod, piggy-backing off Winston's escape pod, breaking free and landing near Junkertown. There, he converted his pod into a mech and participated in the Junkertown Arena under the name Wrecking Ball. In its spherical form, Wrecking Ball can roll about the map, using a grappling hook to gain speed and do more damage to those foes he hits. While near foes, he can activate an adaptive shield powered by the number of nearby enemies, which he then can transfer to allies at a different location. While in the air, he can initiate a powerful ground strike that briefly launches enemies. The mech can transform into a quadrupedal form, and he can fire four gatling guns at enemies. His ultimate lets him launch a small field of floating mines that damage enemies that contact them. Hammond's animal noises are voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, while his mech's computer, which translates these to known vocabulary, is voiced by Jonathan Lipow. Zarya Zarya, full name Aleksandra Zaryanova, is a Russian powerlifter and soldier. She uses a particle cannon that damages foes by a continuous beam or a projectile. The strength of these attacks comes from the amount of damage absorbed by the barriers that she can project around herself or allies, which decays over time and with each attack. Her ultimate creates a gravity well that draws all nearby foes to it and unable to escape until the well dissapates. Zarya is voiced by Dolya Gavanski. are those that have the largest capacity to deal damage to enemy players, and tend to be able to move quickly around the map. However, they can be more vulnerable to attacks from the other team with lower hit points than other roles. Anran Anran Ye is a Chinese martial artist with abilities based around fire. She is the older sister of Wuyang and a fourth-year student at Wuxing University's Fire College in Chengdu, China. She first appeared in the game's official comic "Against the Tide", where she fought against the Omnic attack at Chengdu together with Wuyang. Ashe Ashe, full name Elizabeth Caledonia "Calamity" Ashe, is an American gunslinger and leader of the Deadlock Gang, a band of arms-trafficking outlaws based in Arizona. Her main weapon is The Viper, a lever action repeating rifle that can be used for short-ranged quick fire or sighted long shots. She also carries a Coach gun which can knock enemies back and propel her up or away from obstacles as well as enable limited rocket jumping, and can throw Dynamite bundles that detonate after a short delay or immediately when shot with her rifle, setting opponents on fire. Her ultimate ability summons B.O.B., her Omnic butler/bodyguard, who charges forward to knock enemies into the air before laying down suppressive fire with his built-in arm cannons. Unlike deployable assets from other heroes, such as Torbjörn's turrets, B.O.B. serves as a temporary sixth player on the team until his health is exhausted, and thus is able to capture or challenge objectives, and can be healed by allies. Ashe is voiced by Jennifer Hale. It is usually accompanied by a small bird named Ganymede, who was building a nest on it when it reactivated, and both humanizes Bastion and makes it relatable. Bastion is eventually found by Overwatch's former chief engineer, Torbjörn Lindholm, who decides to take the omnic in after seeing Bastion resisting its combat protocol. Locating to Torbjörn's workshop, Bastion continues to help the inventor there. In Overwatch, it can Reconfigure between a mobile form outfitted with a submachine gun (Configuration: Recon) and a tank form equipped with a Gatling gun (Configuration: Assault). It also has the ability to launch a grenade (A-36 Tactical Grenade), and its Ironclad passive reduces damage taken while in Assault form. Its ultimate ability is Configuration: Artillery, in which bastion becomes stationary and is able to launch 3 artillery shells anywhere on the map. Cassidy Cole Cassidy is an American bounty hunter and vigilante with a cybernetic arm and a Wild West motif. He carries his Peacekeeper six-shooter, with its primary fire that can shoot single shots with high accuracy at moderate range, and its alternate fire allowing him to Fan the Hammer to quickly unload any remaining ammo at close range in rapid fire with some loss of accuracy. He can quickly dodge attacks using his Combat Roll ability which also instantly reloads his revolver. In Overwatch he could throw a Flashbang grenade a short distance which stunned enemies and interrupted their abilities. In Overwatch 2, the Flashbang ability was replaced with a short-range Magnetic Grenade that had a certain degree of homing and delt high damage on a direct hit, and hindered the enemy causing them to move slower and be unable to use abilities while the grenade is attached. This was replaced with his old Flashbang ability in season 10 which works the same as in overwatch one. Cassidy's ultimate ability is Deadeye, which allows him to line up shots on every enemy in his sight, with resulting damage proportional to the time spent aiming. In Overwatch, Cassidy was considered one of the easiest characters to learn, enabled by the Flashbang/Fan the Hammer combo, which could kill most low- to mid-health opponents in one shot. When Overwatch first launched, the character was named after former Blizzard staff member Jesse McCree. In the wake of the July 2021 lawsuit filed by California's Department of Fair Employment against Activision Blizzard related to workplace misconduct and discrimination against female employees, McCree, who had been connected to some of the alleged behavior, was confirmed to be no longer working for the company. Afterwards they changed the character's name "to something that better represents what Overwatch stands for", resulting in the name Cole Cassidy. Cassidy is voiced by Matthew Mercer. Dr. Liao was one of the scientists that had created the Omnics while part of the Omnica Corporation, and who had joined the newly-found Overwatch to deal with the Omnic Crisis. She had created Echo as part of the Echo Project as a more benevolent artificial intelligence to try to overcome her guilt for creating the more harmful Omnics, hoping that AI could be used to save humanity. An attack on Overwatch headquarters killed Dr. Liao. Echo took on part of Dr. Liao's personality, and thus became "her promise, her legacy, her Echo". After being quarantined for many years, Echo is soon reawakened by Cole Cassidy to join the reformed Overwatch team. Echo was the 32nd Hero to be introduced to Overwatch in March 2020. She started as a planned character for Titan, though initially was more functional and less human-like, with her more human appearance coming about by the fourth iteration of her design. Prior to her announcement, Echo had also appeared in the animated short Reunion, released alongside Ashe's reveal as the 29th hero. Ashe attempts to steal her while she is in a state of hibernation, but she is rescued by Cassidy. When reactivated, Cassidy informs her of Winston's recall of Overwatch agents. She was also shown in the teaser cinematic for Overwatch 2, joining Winston's recall of other Overwatch members to fight new threats. At the time of the Overwatch 2 reveal, Kaplan stated Blizzard planned to introduce Echo as a playable hero at some point in the future. Echo was announced on March 18, 2020, available to players on the PTR the following day, and unlocked for all players on April 14, 2020. Kaplan anticipated that Echo would be the last character to be added to Overwatch roster until the release of Overwatch 2. Emre Emre Sarioglu is a Turkish soldier and a former member of Overwatch's strike team. He aided several of its operations, including helping to recover Genji after Hanzo nearly killed him. After Overwatch's collapse, he joined Talon as a mercenary but would repeatedly go dark during missions, making him a target for a bounty that Maximilien contracts to Freja. After Freja finds Emre in Riyadh, he is revealed to have undergone numerous cybernetic enhancements; however, these augmentations appear to manipulate his body and mind into becoming a ruthless killer. He used a three-round burst rifle that can be used both hip-firing and down its sights for better accuracy. He can briefly create a Siphon Blaster that fires life-stealing rounds, and throw Cyber Frag grenades. His ultimate, Override Protocol, transforms Emre into a living weapon that fires rapid, explosive shots for a brief period. She was introduced during a trial period in Season 15 and was fully added to the roster with the start of Season 16 in April 2025. Freja is voiced by Olivia Le Anderson. Genji Genji Shimada is a Japanese cyborg ninja. His main attack method is to throw three Shurikens, either in quick succession or simultaneously in a horizontal spread. His abilities are Swift Strike, a quick dashing lunge with good range, and Deflect, a defensive stance that briefly ricochets projectiles back at enemies with his wakizashi. His Cyber-Agility allows him to double-jump and run up walls. Genji's ultimate ability is Dragonblade, during which Genji unsheathes the odachi on his back and delivers powerful, sweeping melee attacks to any targets within reach for a limited amount of time. In his origin story, Genji transforms from a slacker to a superhero. His family—the Japanese Shimada crime family—ordered his eldest brother Hanzo to kill Genji for his selfish and hedonistic behavior (as shown in the short Dragons and referenced in-game on the Hanamura map by a shrine devoted to Genji He later appeared in Hanamura Showdown, a non-canon cinematic trailer for Heroes of the Storm 2.0. Genji also appeared in the animated short Zero Hour, which functioned as announcement cinematic for Overwatch 2. Originally, Genji and his brother Hanzo were designed as one character. However, Blizzard Entertainment thought this arrow-firing, shuriken-tossing, and katana-wielding character was too complex, therefore splitting it into two different characters. Hanzo kept the name of the original character, as well as the general aesthetic of that character. The story and relationship between the two brothers were inspired by a documentary film titled Jiro Dreams of Sushi, in which the older brother had to inherit the restaurant and carry on his father's legacy, while the younger brother had more free will. Gameplay-wise, Genji is a flanker and an infiltrator optimized for one-on-one fights. Genji's Deflect ability can counter many enemy ultimate abilities. While some characters function best when paired with specific teammates, Genji works best in isolation. Genji is vulnerable against characters with energy weapons that bypass his deflection, such as Symmetra, Winston, and Zarya. Genji's agile, melee-oriented playstyle is said to be difficult to learn, yet is popular among new players who like his ninja design. Later that month, Blizzard rebalanced Genji by reducing the power of his abilities. At the end of 2016, Blizzard offered a special "oni" character skin as a promotion for players who also played the company's multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm. Genji was added as one of the heroes in Heroes of the Storm on April 25, 2017. Genji is voiced by Gaku Space. Junkrat appears as a playable hero in Heroes of the Storm. In all appearances, he is voiced by Chris Parson. Pharah is voiced by Jen Cohn. In June 2023, as part of Pride Month, Blizzard affirmed that Pharah was written as a lesbian, made more explicit with updates to the game. Reaper Reaper, real name Gabriel Reyes, is an American mercenary and terrorist, originally a founding member of Overwatch, now a leading member of Talon. He is attired in a black hooded trenchcoat with a white skull mask and wields twin Hellfire Shotguns. His abilities are Shadow Step, a medium-range line of sight teleport, and Wraith Form, a brief period of invincibility and speed increase. He was able to heal himself by consuming the souls of fallen enemies, visible as red burning "Soul Globes" on the ground but later was changed to a passive ability called The Reaping which allows him to heal 30% of the damage he deals. Reaper's ultimate ability is Death Blossom, a twin shotgun gun kata which deals massive damage in a short radius around him. Reaper is voiced by Keith Ferguson. She is voiced by Khaya Fraites. Soldier: 76 Soldier: 76, real name Jack Francis Morrison, is an American soldier-turned-vigilante and a founding member of Overwatch. He wears a facemask with a visor and carries an experimental Heavy Pulse Rifle equipped with an underbarrel launcher that fires three Helix Rockets. His abilities are Sprint, a forward run with no duration limit or cooldown, and Biotic Field, a deployable device which regenerates the health of allies in the immediate vicinity. His ultimate ability, Tactical Visor, puts up a head-up display that allows his rifle to automatically track enemies in his line of sight for a brief period. Soldier: 76 is voiced by Fred Tatasciore. Sombra is voiced by Carolina Ravassa. She has cybernetic implants in her head, as well as a cybernetic arm that transforms into a disruptor cannon. Her carried weapon is a prototype railgun, which she is able to handle the increased recoil of due to her cybernetics. Her primary weapon is a machine gun that build up energy over time, which then can be unleashed as a railgun shot through its secondary fire. She can launch an area-of-effect Disruptor Shot that traps and drains enemies while building her railgun energy. She can perform a Power Slide that can be used to finish into a high jump. Her Ultimate is Overclock which continually recharges her railgun and makes its shots piercing. Sojourn is voiced by Cherise Boothe. Symmetra Symmetra, real name Satya Vaswani, is an Indian "architech" (equal parts architect and engineer) working for the Vishkar Corporation. She wields a Photon Projector that emits a short-ranged beam that does more damage the longer it remains on an opponent. Her primary fire will charge her ammo instead of using it, making her a good counter to barriers. It can also be used to charge up and launch a slow-moving ball of energy in a straight line. She can fire up to three Sentry Turrets that attach to any surface they touch, and which damage opponents in close range. She has a Teleporter skill that allows her to place the entrance and exits points of a warp tunnel that has an infinite duration, through which teammates and certain projectiles and weapons can travel through, until the teleporter is recalled by Symmetra or destroyed by an enemy. Her ultimate ability is a Photon Barrier, a powerful energy barrier that blocks opponents' fire, and large enough to cut through the entire map. Symmetra is voiced by Anjali Bhimani. Torbjörn was one of the first characters designed for Overwatch, intended to help bridge Blizzard's art styles between Warcraft and Overwatch, and served as a template for most of the other launch heroes. Torbjörn is voiced by Keith Silverstein. is an Italian swordswoman and the daughter of high-ranking Talon member Antonio Bartalotti; though designed to become heir to Talon, she was cast aside, and instead she spent her time in gladiatorial games as a fighter known as La Lupa while plotting her revenge. She reappears at Talon's headquarters, dethroning Doomfist and taking charge of Talon to lead the fight against Overwatch. She wields Palatine Fang, a hard light great sword that she uses for slashing and whirlwind attacks. She can also throw the sword and fly to its location, while her ultimate charges her blade to perform a damaging attack to all in front of her. Vendetta was introduced in Season 20 in December 2025, with a trial period during Season 19. She is voiced by Chiara Preziosi. Venture Venture, real name Sloan Cameron, is a Canadian archaeologist, belonging to an archaeological research group known as the Wayfinder Society, and the hero that Blizzard added to Overwatch 2 during Season 10 in April 2024, being playable during an open test period in the prior month. Venture is the first non-binary character in Overwatch. They are equipped with a futuristic drill which they use as a weapon, a Smart Excavator, which fires a seismic projectile that bursts after a short distance. With the excavator, they can Drill Dash to spring towards the direction they are facing, damaging opponents. They can also Burrow underground for short distances, remaining invulnerable while underground, and jumping out to do damage to foes above them. They can use their Drill Dash ability while Burrow is active, damaging enemies and knocking them into the air. Passively, using their abilities gains temporary shields through their ''Explorer's Resolve, and does more melee damage with quick attacks though their Clobber skill. Their ultimate ability is a Tectonic Shock'' that sends out shock waves through the ground to heavily damage enemies. Venture is voiced by Valeria Rodriguez. Widowmaker Widowmaker, real name Amélie Lacroix, is a French sniper and assassin. She wields the ''Widow's Kiss, a versatile rifle that fires in full automatic at close-range, and can convert into a sniper rifle for long-range kills. She also uses a Grappling Hook to reach high ledges and Venom Mines to disable enemies. Her ultimate ability is Infra-Sight'', which activates her recon visor to highlight all enemies through walls for her and her team, similar to a wallhack. Widowmaker is voiced by Chloé Hollings. During Pride Month of June 2023, Blizzard affirmed that they had written Baptiste as bisexual, with content updates during that month to explicitly reflect this. Brigitte Brigitte Lindholm, the youngest daughter of Torbjörn, is a Swedish engineer and adventurer. She wields a flail that can whip enemies in close range as well as strike at a distance. She also carries a shield she can use to protect herself or use to ram enemies to knock them back. She can also throw out healing packs to her allies. In her ultimate, she rallies herself and allies to move and attack faster with additional health and armor for a brief time. Brigitte is voiced by Matilda Smedius. Illari is the game's 38th hero and was introduced alongside the player-versus-environment missions in Season 6 of Overwatch 2 on August 10, 2023. Illari is voiced by Andre Cisneros. Jetpack Cat Jetpack Cat, real name Fika, is a sentient stray cat who wandered around the Overwatch Gibraltar base, adopted by Brigitte who fitted her with a jetpack to provide support for the Overwatch team. She constantly flies, and can fire bionic projectiles that heal allies and damage foes. She can offer a tether to her allies to carry them across the battlefield or give them strategic positioning for attacks. Her ultimate ability allows her to slam into the ground, latch onto the nearest enemy, and carry them elsewhere. Jetpack Cat had been a concept within Blizzard since 2017 when it was suggested by Kaplan as a new hero, but at the time, was considered too far outside what fit into the game. After introducing Wrecking Ball, the development team found possibility for her character to work and help expand the hero rooster. She can move quickly with her boots, allowing her to double-jump and hover in the air, and she can also provide an accelerating ring to speed up her allies. Her blaster pistol heals allies and damages enemies, and she can launch pulsar torpedoes that lock on to both allies and foes to heal and damage them, respectively. Her ultimate fires a large beam that heals and provides offensive buffs to all allies it touchs. Juno is voiced by Xanthe Huynh. Kiriko Kiriko Kamori is a Japanese ninja who was trained by her mother alongside the Shimada brothers, Genji and Hanzo. She can throw paper ofuda that heal allies, kunai knives that damage enemies, and a protective suzu bells that clears allies in range of any debuffs. She can climb walls, and can also teleport to a nearby ally. Her ultimate summons a ghostly kitsune spirit that runs through a line of torii gates, granting allies in its path increased speed and offensive buffs. Kiriko was the first hero to be introduced following Overwatch 2 launch in October 2022, and the first to be made available as a free reward on a seasonal battle pass. Her design was based on the new 5 vs. 5 approach used in Overwatch 2. Lifeweaver is voiced by Phuwin Tangsakyuen. Lúcio is voiced by Jonny Cruz. Mercy is voiced by Lucie Pohl. Mizuki is one of the five heroes introduced with the refreshed Season 1 in February 2026. Mizuki is voiced by Julian Cihi. Moira is voiced by Genevieve O'Reilly. Zhang also said the inclusion of Wuyang and the Wuxing concepts as to provide a means to bring a means to represent the traditions of China, in contrast to Mei who was more of a global explorer. Zhang said some of the influence was traditional Chinese wuxia fiction, such as The Legend of the Condor Heroes, which mixes martial arts with magical elements. Several outlets compared Wuyang's story to that from Avatar: The Last Airbender, though where in Avatar, the characters' abilities with the elements are fueled by magic, Wuyang's control of water is by modern technology advancements. Wuyang wields a Xuanwu Staff which fires water orbs at opponents with some degree of control over their direction, along with a secondary Restorative Staff function that can passively heal a target player, with the ability to boost the rate of healing for a short period. His Guardian Wave ability briefly boosts the healing rate of all allies in front of it while pushing back enemy players, while his Rushing Torrent ability lets him use water to move about the field quickly. Wuyang's ultimate is Tidal Blast, which surrounds the target player with a protective sphere of water that later explodes, greatly healing the player within it while harming nearby foes. While a support character, Blizzard developed the character to be an offensive support similar to Zenyatta, making his healing ability mostly passive so that the player can focus on dealing damage, and to address players' concerns about characters losing their identities due to the shift towards damage focus that came with Overwatch 2. Zenyatta Tekhartha Zenyatta is an omnic monk and wanderer. Belonging to an order of omnic monks in Nepal, he travels the world to try and bridge the world between omnics and humans and help others find inner peace. He can launch metallic prayer beads to hit enemies one at a time, or multiple in a charged shot. He can mark an enemy with an Orb of Discord that makes them vulnerable to damage, and similarly mark an ally with an Orb of Harmony to provide healing. He also has an empowered kick melee. His ultimate greatly increases the rate of healing to all allies within its reach, making them near invulnerable while it is active. Zenyatta is voiced by Feodor Chin. Athena is voiced by Evelyn Duah. and a childhood friend of hers. He and D.Va have been working together in the MEKA unit. He was introduced in August 2018 in the animated short Shooting Star, in which he helps D.Va defend Busan from the recurring omnic threat known locally as gwishin. Dae-hyun is voiced by Johnny Young. Emily Emily is Tracer's girlfriend. She is an English woman living in London, with whom Tracer and Winston spent the holidays. She first appears in the comic "Reflections", where Tracer shops for her Christmas present. It is unknown how long she and Tracer have been dating, but Winston does consider her family. The introduction of Emily was lauded by critics and the LGBT community for confirming Tracer as the game's first LGBT character. Hal-Fred Glitchbot Hal-Fred Glitchbot is a famous omnic film director, known for his works such as They Came From Beyond the Moon. As an omnic, he receives much prejudice from society, including being the recipient of assassination attempts. On the map Hollywood, the offensive team must escort his limousine to his trailer, while the defense must stop them. He is known for hurling insults at the players, which vary depending on which characters are being played. His name is a play on famous real-world director Alfred Hitchcock, and the computer HAL 9000 from the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hal-Fred Glitchbot is voiced by Travis Willingham. Dr. Harold Winston Dr. Harold Winston was the chief scientist of the Horizon Lunar Colony, a research base on the Moon where a group of genetically engineered gorillas and primates resided to test the long-term effects of living in space. Harold took a special interest in one young gorilla who showed a great curiosity for the world around him, beginning with stealing Harold's glasses because he thought there would be more to see. Showing the young gorilla a view of Earth, Harold gave him a piece of advice he remembered years later: "Never accept the world as it appears to be. Dare to see it for what it could be." When the other gorillas on the moon base rebelled, Harold and the other human scientists were killed; his prodigy took his name "Winston" to honor his fallen mentor, and escaped to Earth in a scratch-built rocket. Winston also kept Harold's glasses, as well as a photograph of the two of them at the Horizon colony. Dr. Harold Winston is voiced by Greg Chun. Maximilien Maximilien is a wealthy omnic and a member of Talon's inner council, who handles the organization's finances. He first appears in the comic "Masquerade", where he is seen operating a casino in Monaco. In the story-based game mode "Storm Rising" he is captured by Tracer, Genji, Winston, and Mercy after a pursuit in Havana, Cuba. Maximilien was created specifically for the comic by Michael Chu, who envisioned the character as a "Bond villain". Arnold Tsang designed him around this aspect and made him "classy, swanky" to differentiate him from the other omnic villains Maximilien is voiced by Stéphane Cornicard. MEKA MEKA, the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army, is a Busan-based squad of mecha pilots, including D.Va, that protect Korea and nearby states from regular attacks by an omnic colossus known locally as the gwishin. MEKA's pilots were drawn from pro-esports and other similarly skilled areas, such as auto racing, after the gwishin disrupted the ability to use drone mechs. The MEKA squad is overseen by Captain Myung (voiced by Cathy Shim in-game, on Busan), and besides D.Va, includes pilots Kyung-soo "King" Han, Yuna "D.mon" Lee, Seung-hwa "Overlord" Si, and Jae-Eun "Casino" Gwon. D.Va herself is supported by Dae-hyun, a childhood friend and mechanic. While MEKA was discussed in prior Overwatch media, more details of the squad were revealed as part of the August 2018 release of Shooting Star, an animation short focused on D.Va, and the release of the Busan map that incorporates more of the MEKA lore. Mina Liao Dr. Mina Liao is one of the scientists at the Omnica Corporation that created the Omnics, and upon Omnic Crisis, was invited to join Overwatch to fight them as a founding member, along with Jack Morrison, Gabriel Reyes, Ana Amari, Torbjörn Lindholm, and Reinhardt Wilhelm. During her time at Overwatch, she created the Omnic Echo as a benevolent artificial intelligence hoping that it would help save humanity. She was killed during an attack on Overwatch headquarters, and Echo took her personality as part of her legacy. ==Notes==