Overwatch 2’s latest character, help hero Juno, is lastly right here. The “Area Ranger” who hails from Mars joined the playable roster on Tuesday with the launch of season 12 of Overwatch 2. Juno is exclusive in some methods, in that she has a backstory connecting her to current (and deep lore) characters and that she was revealed to the general public sooner than nearly some other Overwatch hero — 10 months earlier than her arrival in-game.
Forward of Juno’s official arrival in Overwatch 2, epicgamejourney spoke with artwork director Dion Rogers and narrative designer Joshi Zhang from Blizzard Leisure in regards to the new hero’s growth and her place within the fiction of Overwatch.
Learn on for our interview, which has been edited for readability.
epicgamejourney: How did Juno come collectively as a personality?
Dion Rogers: It takes us a very long time to create an Overwatch hero. It may take fairly a bit of labor, and we do numerous experimenting. Juno began off [because] the sport design group had a very cool thought of a personality that had talents that felt like a fighter pilot, with lock-on missiles and concentrating on programs.
However we knew we wished a help hero subsequent. So we thought of, “How can we mix this concept of this fighter pilot or space-ranger-style hero with the gameplay package that the sport design group was sharing?” A few issues we began with there was really a mech go well with for the hero sooner or later, however because it was help, it felt prefer it was too huge of a silhouette for a support-style hero.
That was a number of the early iteration. I believe there was a dialog Joshi and I had sooner or later about: Might there be an alien within the recreation? And I believe we found out a strategy to really actually have an alien within the universe of Overwatch, however not have or not it’s a [literal] alien, you already know?
Narratively, I’m additionally keen on how she sort of got here collectively. You talked about having an alien, there’s additionally the Mars colony connection, the Mei connection. How did Juno gel narratively?
Joshi Zhang: Like Dion stated, we began off with that form of open-ended area ranger idea. We had the sensible idea artwork that Daryl [Tan] put collectively, the one which we confirmed at BlizzCon. That was our first level of inspiration. Each time we make a brand new hero, we at all times need to take into consideration “What can we do with this hero to develop our universe and push the tales that we presently have?”
So we began with: What is that this hero’s persona gonna be? She appears younger and she or he appears like she’s able to take stuff on, and the way will we work that into a personality that can resonate with the neighborhood? So we thought, OK, effectively, it’d be sort of humorous if she was this badass alien kinda factor going round capturing stuff. However then, what if she’s additionally sort of… nervous? What else brings alien vibes, like curiosity? Possibly she’s by no means seen stuff earlier than, like she’s grown up on this distant planet. So we got here up with this persona sort that was a bit of quirky, a bit of anxious, very curious, however with a very broad emotional vary, the place she’s actually enthusiastic about studying about sure issues.
Lore-wise, we began to ask ourselves what sort of connections might we make [between] area and Overwatch? We thought of Lucheng Interstellar, which we’ve had plenty of completely different [heroes] discuss. It made sense for her to be linked to Lucheng, and we wished to push on that — and we realized that one person who we haven’t leveraged but was a personality that Mei solely mentions simply as soon as, Jiayi. She’s Mei’s grad college buddy who labored at Lucheng Interstellar. It might make sense age-wise; Jiayi is a bit of older than Mei, so she’s gone as much as Mars on this mission. And she or he had her daughter there, Juno.
Picture: Blizzard Leisure
Jiayi and Mei have been shut throughout grad college, and it’s a fairly main factor in East Asian tradition that in the event you’re very near someone, you think about them like household, and also you’re gonna need to do the whole lot you possibly can for his or her child. Mei sees herself nearly as like a godmother. She sees it as her duty to care for her finest buddy’s daughter whereas she’s on Earth.
When Juno comes into the sport, persons are going to know who she is, persons are going to have regular interactions together with her as if she’s been there all alongside. How is that going to manifest, because it pertains to Mei?
Zhang: We’ll see that [Mei and Juno have] gotten shut fairly rapidly. And once more, that ties into form of that depth of care that you’ve for the duty you’re taking in your finest buddy’s little one.
A few of my favourite interactions with Mei are those the place they each open up a bit of — we see the emotional sides of each of them. Juno has nervousness. Mei has the bags of realizing that we all know what occurred to her in Antarctica. She’s very clearly impacted by it to today, however now she is aware of that one more one in all her pals is dealing with some dire experiences on Mars.
My favourite interplay they’ve is one the place Juno has hassle deciding what to eat. I believe she simply can’t choose, as a result of there’s simply too many decisions on Earth in comparison with what they’d on Mars. Mei will get fairly upset together with her, which is [something] we don’t see that too typically from Mei, however she’s very like “I’m cooking for you later. You need to eat!” So there’s numerous little cute moments like that. We particularly wished to ensure that there have been interactions with Mei and Juno, as a result of we wished to actually present that they’re actually linked.
Picture: Blizzard Leisure
She appears, extra so than lots of people within the Overwatch roster, like a fish out of water. Does she touch upon the truth that her teammates embody a speaking gorilla and a hamster in a large mech ball? Or is all this sort of stuff regular to her, spending all of her life on Mars?
Zhang: It’s an fascinating area that she’s in, as a result of there’s in all probability some issues she takes extra without any consideration than others. I believe that she’s in all probability not as shocked that Hammond is in a mech, in comparison with one thing mundane like a faculty bus. You possibly can hear her speaking about varied areas on this planet the place she has stunning experiences. She’s, like, shocked by all of the water in Rialto. Or there’s the dialog that has made its rounds from her hero trial the place she sees Ashe and she or he’s like, “Wow, an actual cow-person!” I believe you possibly can positively count on to see that fish-out-of-water vibe. That’s positively one thing we wished to push and promote.
That is moving into a bit of bit extra gameplay, however Juno in some methods is likely one of the heroes that has talents that overlap with different characters, like Lúcio. Are we sort of on the stage of Overwatch at this level, the place hero means overlap is sort of inevitable?
Rogers: The power overlap, in some methods, is sweet. Generally a participant might imagine, “I’m not an enormous fan of Lúcio, however I’ve a personality with a really comparable package that I can nonetheless take pleasure in. I’m into Juno. I get a bit of little bit of the impact of what Lúcio does.” Individuals have their favorites and characters they like and don’t like, and a number of the overlap comes from simply giving gamers alternative. They’ll nonetheless get a package or means that they take pleasure in and a personality that they will relate to or resonate higher with. We don’t have a scarcity of concepts for what talents or powers the characters have. So it’s extra in regards to the fantasy of the hero, and typically that causes some overlap with their kits.
Juno was proven means again in November 2024, alongside Enterprise and the following still-unannounced hero. What has it been like so that you can work with these earlier character reveals? Does that very early suggestions issue into your work?
Rogers: This was fascinating. It was one of many first instances we revealed a hero so early, just a few months earlier than we even knew the package of the character, [because it] was nonetheless evolving on the time. The ultimate model of Juno, she has much less of an astronaut go well with on. We wished one thing that felt like that is the clothes they put on on Mars after they enterprise out of the habitats. Earlier than, she felt too on-the-nose as an astronaut. I don’t know if we acquired a ton of suggestions that will lead us to edit the drawing itself aside from what we might naturally do by iteration.
I believe it’s enjoyable to share what we’re as much as earlier than later, you already know, and obtain no matter suggestions and act on what we will. One thing we’d love to do extra is to point out heroes extra upfront — the identical with just like the Conflict previews we did, simply to get some early preliminary ideas or suggestions from gamers. So that you may discover we’ll strive to do that much more, going ahead.
Picture: Blizzard Leisure
You talked about a number of the armor items have been taken off of Juno from that preliminary idea artwork. Are you aware, do you have got any perception into why that sort of aesthetic change? Was it for silhouette causes, simplicity, or…?
Rogers: Loads of it was silhouette causes — to alter her silhouette from different flying heroes within the recreation. A part of this lore is simply: What would she actually put on on Mars if she have been to stroll exterior? There was a stability to strike, going forwards and backwards attempting to actually set up her look, and the place she’s from.
Zhang: It ended up figuring out [narratively], too, as a result of […] her go well with was created by her mother as an iterative factor that they labored collectively on.
What about Juno’s background, coaching, and rising up on Mars lends her to be a help hero? Loads of different Overwatch characters have very particular causes for being healers. What’s it about Juno’s previous that pushed her towards that position?
Zhang: I see her story and her neighborhood as form of like a village vibe, regardless that it’s this futuristic tech Mars base factor. There’s solely a handful of individuals up there, possibly 20 to 30 at most. She’s been on this surroundings the place these persons are all they’ve bought they usually care for one another. She’s been residing like this her complete life, and so when she will get sufficiently old, she’s given the go well with and given the chance to assist. And she or he needs to, as a result of she’s at all times been curious and she or he needs to become involved. She needs to assist. It simply made sense to us that she’s bought the chops to shoot away the rocks and blast particles and all that stuff, however she additionally has the know-how to assist out and heal individuals, if want be, with all of the expertise they’ve bought mendacity round together with her.
Is there a story rationalization for why Juno has entry to an orbital therapeutic beam hovering over Earth? Is that her ship up there?
Rogers: This goes again to the sort of expertise that they’ve on Mars. After we first designed Juno’s ship, it was a bit of too superior. It appeared like these guys on Mars have the perfect entry to provides and expertise. So we talked rather a lot about what her ship would really seem like in the event you had restricted assets on Mars — it’s a bit of hodgepodge, it appears a bit of put collectively. We purposely did that, as a result of we think about, “Hey, that is all they’ve.” When she escapes Mars, there’s solely sufficient room for one particular person [on this ship]. When she reaches Earth, it’s much like what we do with present area exploration: Part of the ship detaches, that lands on earth, and what stays is left up in area. That is what generates her final.
Picture: Blizzard Leisure
Zhang: Her neighborhood wanted to tug collectively a spaceship like this. There’s numerous love and care put into that ship — it’s that raised-by-a-village factor. They don’t know in the event that they’re ever going to see her once more. So the best way I see it’s, the least they will do is hold her protected, proper? And they also connect this orbital beam that she will name [upon] anytime from her go well with. It’s like the last word present of care that they’ll at all times be there to look out for her, even when they’re many tens of millions of kilometers away. So I believe it’s cute.
Rogers: They need her to be protected. So that is sort of like essentially the most heartfelt model of why this expertise exists within the ship for her.
The individuals on the Mars colony — are they OK, or are they not OK?
Zhang: They’re OK for now, like they’re making do with the circumstances. The circumstances are dire sufficient that they will’t afford to threat Juno’s life.
A enjoyable element I need to point out is Brian Horn, who’s the director for the [animated short]. One of many particulars that we included was that there’s a “55 million kilometers later” card for when she’s really arriving on Earth. I consider the shortest distance that Earth has ever been from Mars is 56 million kilometers. Normally on common, the gap from Earth to Mars is like 225 million kilometers, or one thing like that. So it was actually like they’d one shot to get her the perfect probabilities of getting her to security, they usually couldn’t be like, “Nicely, we might wait for an additional Martian yr. We might wait for an additional two Martian years.” It was like, “If there’s any time, it’s bought to be now.” In order that’s one thing cool, I assumed, that Brian added.
Are we going to be taught extra about what occurred on the Mars colony that forces Juno to depart?
Zhang: There are some fairly aggressive storms taking place on Mars [because of] Lucheng’s secret terraforming initiative. Individuals up there have been doing stuff to advance a mission that Lucheng has that, effectively, we don’t have particulars about but.
They’re altering the best way Mars’ environment is — you can consider the best way we’ve local weather change right here on Earth. Storms are getting worse, issues are going dangerous, and for some cause the colony has misplaced contact with Lucheng [on Earth]. A number of the issues we’re going to be trying into sooner or later is exploring the open-ended questions that we presently have. Why did Lucheng lose contact with us? What’s gonna occur to all these individuals up on Mars, and what’s [Overwatch] going to do about it?
Does Juno have a direct connection to the following hero? And the explanation I ask is as a result of individuals have seen the cartoonish teaser for the following hero and have requested, “Is {that a} Martian?” How shut is that hypothesis? Does Juno have a direct connection to that subsequent hero?
Rogers: This art work [we showed at BlizzCon] is a thumbnail {that a} man on our group named Taki creates. After we begin to construct a hero, he makes these humorous drawings of them. Generally they find yourself as sprays within the recreation. So this was left within the [BlizzCon] construct on objective. We need to tease heroes as they arrive alongside.
I believe it’s in all probability too early to say how carefully linked these two are with one another, if they’re in any respect. However if you see these little pictures, it’s our group having a bit of enjoyable with the early thumbnails, and as a hero develops, that thumbnail out of the blue turns into, you already know, the true model that helps us perceive the stage a hero is at within the growth.
We’ve been to Horizon Lunar Colony, due to an older Overwatch recreation map. Are we going to have the ability to play on Lucheng Mars Colony sooner or later? Narratively, it wouldn’t make a complete lot of sense for Overwatch to go battle on Mars colony, due to the entire 55 million kilometers away at minimal factor, proper? However does that stop us from going to Mars colony sooner or later?
Rogers: It doesn’t! Truly, it’s a superb remark. We need to try this extra the place when a hero is launched, there’s a culturally related map or one thing lore-wise that connects them. It’s one thing we’re attempting to plan to do sooner or later. Possibly one other cool spacey map, proper?
