You heard it right here first, of us: Tracer continues to be the face of Overwatch, regardless of not being featured in lots of main collaborations or promotional supplies as of late.
We obtained the prospect to take a seat down with the minds behind Overwatch at Blizzcon 2026 to debate the sport’s latest help hero, Doctrine, and the way forward for the franchise — in addition to grill them about Tracer’s function as its supposed mascot.
When you consider Overwatch, you in all probability consider Tracer. She was basically the star of the present when the sport first launched in 2016, and was constantly featured in advertising supplies, merchandise, commercials, and extra. Her iconic silhouette and speedy talents had been inescapable again then… however now, not a lot.
We straight requested Overwatch’s Lead Hero Producer Kenny Hudson, in addition to artwork director Dion Rogers, if Tracer continues to be the mascot of the sport — or if she was ever actually thought-about its mascot, in any respect.
Their reply was agency and decisive: Tracer is, and at all times was, the mascot of Overwatch.
“Tracer continues to be the mascot for Overwatch. Very a lot. ‘Tracer orange’ is a quote that the crew makes use of on a regular basis. The little cheeto on high of the sigil is orange. She’s nonetheless that lady,” Rogers advised us.
Overwatch simply obtained a brand-new help hero in Doctrine, a vampire-inspired character who has a protracted historical past with Doomfist. No, he’s not an precise vampire, however that motif was a key a part of his design from the very starting, says Rogers.
“The concept got here from our lead narrative designer, Miranda Moyer, who truly requested the query of, ‘What would a vampire appear like within the Overwatch universe?’ We at all times do our greatest work on heroes after we get a very cool theme to rally round, and ‘vampire’ simply obtained the mind juices flowing on every thing from equipment, to idea, to artwork,” he defined.
“This one was enjoyable, as a result of with Hero 54, we’ve hit all of the archetypes like cowboy, knight, ninja. As soon as we thought in regards to the vampire, we had been like, ‘Yeah, let’s lean into it and see if we will make a hero out of this,’” Hudson added.
“He’s nonetheless a scientist or a mechanical engineer, even his cape nonetheless seems like a lab coat from the sciency a part of him. …we began him off as a scientist, a typical man, lab coat, glasses. Typically it takes a crew saying once they see a picture, ‘That’s the hero.’ He didn’t fairly really feel prefer it but. However we took the vampire factor that Miranda talked about, we utilized that, and he truly began to really feel like a hero. You’ll be able to see a theme, you’ll be able to see a fantasy, you’ll be able to see an archetype. Making him hail from Zimbabwe, Africa, provides him that instant heritage and connection to Doomfist. He labored for Doomfist’s household sooner or later in his life, and helped construct arms for Doomfist, so it made sense that he would attain out to him to get his arm again.”
Doctrine is the almost the final of 10 characters who’ve come to Overwatch this 12 months. With a lot content material dropping into the sport in 2026, we needed to ask about what peaks are left for Overwatch to climb, and what’s within the pipeline subsequent.
“There’s at all times room for extra heroes,” Rogers mentioned. “There’s much more we’re cooking.”
“It’s not a lot about hitting the targets we’ve already hit, however setting new ones and seeing the place we will take it,” Hudson added. “We’re actually excited with all of the crew has discovered over the past couple of years to have the ability to actually push ourselves into new territory and evolve in new, fascinating methods.”
Doctrine was one in all a number of huge bulletins proven off at Blizzcon this 12 months, and there is nonetheless extra to return; Hero 55 was additionally teased this weekend, and he is a suave-looking Omnic who followers are already itching to play. You’ll be able to out our recap weblog for full breakdown of every thing revealed, in addition to our interview with the crew behind the upcoming StarCraft open-world shooter coming in 2030.