Overwatch's Next Hero May Finally, Finally Be Doomfist

Blizzard has published a new blog post teasing the arrival of Doomfist, the oft-rumored character many players would guess when asked to pick who Overwatch ’s next playable hero might be.

The blog post picks up after the Numbani attacks that gave us child prodigy Efi Oladele and her creation, tank hero Orisa, shedding light on events that happened before and after the Numbani airport devastation.

“Three months after initial reports of an incident at Helix Security International's classified maximum security installation, a more complete picture of what happened has emerged… [A]fter recent events in Numbani, it can now be confirmed that what occurred was an attack by the Talon organization with the express purpose of freeing one man: Akande Ogundimu, better known as Doomfist,” states the post.

It turns out it was Reaper who smuggled Doomfist out in the first place: “The unidentified assailant easily overcame the Helix security agents, leaving over a dozen dead. Medical records of the casualties reveal injuries and cellular degeneration matching other incidents involving the mercenary known as the Reaper, all but confirming the incursion as a Talon attack.”

Doomfist himself perpetrated the actual attack on Numbani in order to reclaim the Doomfist, a powerful gauntlet that gives the bearer enough strength to level skyscrapers. In official Overwatch lore, the name of “Doomfist’ has been borne by three people: “The Savior,” “The Scourge” and “The Successor.” Ogundimu is the current bearer of the name, but unfortunately for our heroes, he does not appear to be on Team Overwatch.

The attack on Numbani involved the destruction of a great number of OR15 defense units, though no civilians were killed. The Numbani attack took place in the airport spawn area that’s very familiar to Overwatch players, and featured a big ol’ fist-sized impact crater that lit players’ imaginations:

After the attack, the Doomfist gauntlet was also removed from the Numbani payload, as was the holographic image of the gauntlet located in another spawn area. Girl genius Efi did not give up on the OR15s after the attack, but instead took the pieces back to her workshop and created Orisa, “a single heroic unit that wasn’t supposed to be part of a huge battalion but was supposed to be a specific individual hero.”

Kaplan has promised that Orisa and Doomfist’s plots will be linked: "Doomfist has been one of the most interesting characters that we've introduced to the game because he literally was introduced on day one when we did our announcement trailer," Kaplan said in an interview with IBTimes UK.

“The whole impetus behind that conflict that happened in the museum was around Doomfist's gauntlet, so he was immediately in the psyche of Overwatch players. We've done a relatively good job of not hyping Doomfist, the community has very much hyped Doomfist and obviously Orisa's storyline is very tied in to Doomfist. So we have a big plan,” Kaplan said.

The blog post ends with a teaser for additional drama in the world of Overwatch, as “those who have objected to the increased privatization of security following the shuttering of Overwatch will have been dismayed that Helix has requested, and been granted, additional funding by the UN to cope with rising threats.” Is Helix the new Overwatch but more sinisterly corporate? Does Talon really have its claws in Helix, as the post implies? What will our heroes do?

Recent PTR crash files have included a reference to Doomfist, so it seems like Doomfist is indeed our next playable hero in Overwatch, unless he gets preempted by some other character like a Helix or Talon-type that’s also involved in the storyline.

But the real question remains….

Will Terry Crews voice Doomfist?

Are you looking forward to the release of Doomfist? What do you think his abilities will be? Feel free to talk about Doomfist and Overwatch in our comments section below.