Overwatch's Efi Will Be Part of Next Hero's Story, Game Director Says (Update)

Jeff Kaplan says more details will be coming 'over the next week.'

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Update: After this story went live, Kaplan apparently clarified his remarks to Polygon, stating that Efi will be part of the next character's story, but that the new character had not been confirmed.

Original Story: The speculation about Overwatch's next hero has run wild after yesterday's faux interview with child robotics and AI genius Efi Oladele. Would the hero be an 11-year-old or would it be a new Omnic she might create? According to Gabe Director Jeff Kaplan, it is the former, but we likely have not gotten the full story.

Kaplan gave an Overwatch talk at DICE 2017, showing various slides of art. In one, a huge four-legged mech was prominent, but he quickly warned speculative Reddit users that "the hero in the center is not the hero that you think it is,” which was similar to his comment on the official forums earlier in the week about character Doomfist.

However, after the talk, he confirmed to Polygon that Efi was the next hero, with more info coming "over the next week."

The revelation of a combatant 11-year-old seems odd. In yesterday's story about Efi, it was revealed that she liked the idea of drones doing her work for her, and that she really wanted to create a new Omnic, the game's sentient robots. Those details could mean that Efi may not be killable, but eliminating her toys would eliminate her. And while the four-legged mechanical marvel in the slide and previous trailers for Overwatch may not be the actual hero, it could still appear in the game very soon.

Granted it's all speculation at this point, but hey, we'll learn more over the next week.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 22, 2017 2:30 PM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Overwatch's Next Hero Is Efi, Game Director Confirms

    • reply
      February 22, 2017 2:48 PM

      what is this weird bug thing in this image for the game? a future hero perhaps?

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        February 22, 2017 3:31 PM

        From what Jeff said it seems like a future hero, but not Efi (fans had been speculating that she controlled a spider bot based on an earlier leak). Seems very likely that Efi will be a remote bot-controlling hero though since there's no way you're going to be shooting at an 11 year old girl. Would be weird though if they did that and then put out another unrelated robot hero.

    • reply
      February 22, 2017 3:53 PM

      In the Sombra cinematic there was this artwork: https://i.imgur.com/7E0yvTJ.png

      Has a 4 legged tank connected to a Numbani flag

    • reply
      February 22, 2017 4:35 PM

      She's probably going to be a drone pilot that is restricted to spawn room so you can't shoot a kid.

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