Doomfist May Not Be The Next ‘Overwatch’ Hero

One of the most highly anticipated heroes to come to the Overwatch lineup is Doomfist, but a recent statement from Blizzard indicates players may have to wait a while longer.

Jeff Kaplan, one of the Overwatch designers, declared that while multiple new heroes are being worked on, the 24th may not be what gamers are expecting. Kaplan was on a thread in the Overwatch forums discussing the various emotes available (or not) in the game for various champions when Eurogamer reports he said, “24 is not who you think it is.”

The topic of the original thread was why Sombra, a new hero, lacks the sitting and laugh emotes virtually every other Overwatch champion has.

Eurogamer also pointed out Kaplan said, “We have multiple new heroes being worked on right now plus numerous events and event-related content. We’re always asking ourselves ‘what would make the biggest impact for the most people’ when we prioritise. Right now, we feel like introducing a new hero to the line-up would be more impactful to the game. Hope that makes sense.”

While Kaplan does not explicitly rule out Doomfist as a potential hero, or even as a candidate for the 24th slot, due to the community’s high expectation of this particular champion arriving, it seems he was putting on the brakes for that idea.

Part of the hype around the Doomfist champion comes from Terry Crews, a former American football player and now Hollywood actor, who has expressed major interest in voicing the possible Overwatch character.

Who wants to hear me do the voice of Doomfist for real?? https://t.co/l4aszRrDYE

— Terry Crews (@terrycrews) January 4, 2017

Doomfist is actually the name of a pair of gauntlets featuring prominently in Overwatch lore. Widowmaker and Reaper attempt to steal them from a museum while fighting Tracer and Winston in one of the cinematics Blizzard has released alongside the game. In addition to that, one of the missions involves escorting a payload featuring the Doomfist gauntlets.

More importantly, the Doomfist gauntlets have actually been worn by three prominent heroes/villains from Overwatch lore. In the Numbani map, three posters featuring The Savior, The Scourge, and The Successor are shown together in the starting area for the attack team. Whether or not Doomfist will be one of these three remains to be seen, thought it seems likely that an altogether new hero will emerge to wear the powerful artifacts.

One possible candidate for the next champion release is Efi Oladele. According to PC Gamer, “Blizzard has given us our first tease of the upcoming 24th Overwatch hero: a blog post spotlighting Efi Oladele, an 11-year-old robotics prodigy from Numbani and the recipient of “the Adawe Foundation’s prestigious ‘genius grant.'”

It does seem fairly unlikely that Blizzard would add a child to the lineup of potential champions in a first-person shooter, though she would not be the first kid to be added to a violent lineup. League of Legends features Annie, a child pyromancer whose stuffed bear turns into a burning monster. On the other hand, considering Oladele is a robotics genius, it seems likely that rather than Efi joining the fray, one of her robot creations could fight instead.

That idea could allow some interesting features, as Bastion, a robot character in Overwatch, has several different modes due to his robo-nature. If Efi has a robot (or robots) fighting in her place, the mechanics could make for an interesting hero to play.

So what are your thoughts on Overwatch‘s next hero? Are you rooting for a Doomfist release, or do you want some other character to wade into the fray? Tell us what you think in the comments section below!

[Featured Image by Overwatch/Blizzard]