Now that Doomfist is finally released, fans of Overwatch are put in a strange situation: they now have no idea what the next hero is going to be. Before, it was always “when is Doomfist coming out?” When it was actually Sombra, people thought it was Doomfist. When it was actually Orisa, people thought it was Doomfist. Now that it actually was Doomfist, what’s next?
Those paying close attention to the recent goings on at Gamescom, though, might have a new idea about who could be next: the mysterious Junkertown Queen. In the longer cinematic tying in the Junkertown level, Junkrat and Roadhog plot revenge against “the Queen,” for throwing them out, mentioning her at the start of the video.
And you may be thinking that we don’t know anything about the Junkertown Queen, but that’s not the case. The other video released on Junkertown, seen below, gives us almost all the information we need about her.
With this video, we now know that the Junkertown Queen is the ruler of this isolated wasteland. We know that she instills anti-Omnic ideas among her people (ideas that possibly aren’t shared by Junkrat and Roadhog). We know that Junkertown itself was built under her rule from the ashes of the early Omnic crisis. And we know that she has some personal beef with Junkrat and Roadhog. Sure, there’s a lot more we could know, but that’s certainly enough to get us started.
Not to mention that, judging by the header image of this article taken from the video, the Junkertown Queen also has a weapon, nay two weapons. Two spear-like weapons lean right up against the wall behind her throne. This can’t be by accident, meaning the Overwatch team wants you to know that the Junkertown Queen is combat ready and not one to be trifled with.
This also sets her apart from previous releases of non-hero characters in the Overwatch universe, such as Efi Oladele, the creator of Orisa. Efi also had a backstory and a voice actor, being the child genius who just received a grant following the supposed Doomfist-led attack on the Numbani airport. But she was clearly not combat-ready, the way the Junkertown Queen is being set up to be.
The other thing we should consider, though, is the official mention of Hammond. Hammond, for those of you who don’t religiously follow the fictional Overwatch news website Atlas News, was teased around the time of the Lunar Colony map release. Hammond is another genetically modified ape, a’la Winston. Atlas News mentioned that, during the crisis aboard the Horizon Lunar Colony map, Hammond had been absent from his cage for about a week. Apparently, Hammond was also a smaller ape, possibly a monkey, which would make him much different than Winston.
We also must consider the fact that a supposed leak dropped on 4chan during the lead-up to the Anniversary event confirming Hammond and detailing some of his abilities. That said, this leak appears to be an errant fraud, as it got several important details wrong. The next hero was not Hammond, but Doomfist. The Anniversary event didn’t end on the sixth of June, as the leak predicted, and there wasn’t a new tie-in animated short.
Even discounting that leak, though, it still seems that more effort by Blizzard has been put into the Junkertown Queen. She has a voice actor, a backstory and a weapon, whereas the only thing official we have on Hammond is an email. Could both of these heroes be coming down the pipeline? It’s certainly possible, but my money is on the Junkertown Queen to be the first one through the gates. When that will be, however, no one really knows. At this rate, we’ve had one hero every four months or so, so maybe the next one will be toward the end of 2017. We’ll see.
