Overwatch has only been out for one year and it quickly became one of the biggest video games of the modern generation. The game's sale numbers quickly hit the millions, and the player base is constantly growing and stronger than ever more than a year into the game's life. One of the best things about Overwatch are the heroes you can play as. They're all incredibly unique and it's easy to see all the effort that went into designing the characters. No two characters feel alike, ranging from how they play to the backstories of them. Tons of sweat and tears went into the game and it created the amazing game we all know and love today. The game currently boasts 25 unique heroes, 4 of them added into the game after its release. While some of the backstories and histories of the characters can be seen in the game itself with dialogue between characters. However, the Overwatch heroes have a lot more than meets the eye going on with them. By looking at interviews with developers, art books, and the official forums, we can learn so much more about the heroes of Overwatch. Luckily for you, we've gathered all sorts of awesome trivia and awesome development facts that'll blow you away. We will be looking at one piece of trivia for every hero in Overwatch. From Doomfist to Zenyatta, these facts are bound to be something you never knew about the characters of the Overwatch world. Let's get down to business, and get to the list.

25 He Wasn't Even Supposed To Be Here!

Doomfist is the most recent addition to the cast of characters in Overwatch, despite technically being there in the first cinematic trailer. Granted, the trailer simply had Doomfist's Gauntlet, but the first stepping stones to design the hero were there. However, Doomfist wasn't originally intended to be in the game to begin with. Originally, the name Doomfist was meant to be a throwaway title for the gauntlet itself and wasn't intended to be re-visited at all. He would later be given early concept art and despite never intending to be, would be worked on behind the scenes for quite some time. Despite multiple teases for his release, Blizzard would throw a curve ball and end up releasing Orisia, an Omnic built to defend Numbani from Doomfist before his official release.

24 When One Hero Becomes Two

Genji is one of the two Shimada Brothers along with Hanzo. The cyborg ninja that always needs healing is one of the harder heroes to master in the game, and there's a lot of content packed into one character, which makes this fact even harder to believe. Originally, Hanzo and Genji were the same character, and Genji's character design, namely his robotic body, was what Hanzo's once was during early stages of development. He sported the grey armor with green lights but would also wear Hanzo's current clothing and wielded a bow. The development choice could be the reason why they made Genji and Hanzo brothers in the first place, because they were at one point in development one in the same character before he was officially released to the public as the two.

23 Does This Confirm Half-Life 3?

It's no secret that Overwatch references and takes inspiration from all sorts of media and other video games. This is most prominently seen in McCree, the cowboy with a cyborg arm. There's obvious inspiration from old cowboy westerns with his mannerisms and dialogue. A more obscure source of inspiration would be with McCree's weapon his Peacekeeper. A tweet from Danny O'Dwyer, who worked on a short documentary on the development of Overwatch, shared that a cut scene stated that the gun is based on the Colt Python from Half-Life. It isn't the first time Overwatch borrowed from Valve games, as many comparisons could be made with Overwatch and one of Valve's biggest titles Team Fortress 2. This is most noticeable with Payload maps and similarities between characters like the Medic from TF2 and Mercy.

22 Gender Is Just A Social Construct, I Guess

Pharah was one of the first characters every designed for Overwatch. She was originally called "Rocket Dude" in the testing stages and would go through many changes in development. In these early stages, Pharah was a male, and his outfit used little to no armor. One resembled a pilot with aviators with a jetpack attached to him and another one with a similar design though heavier set. Pharah would later be made female and originally given a Gundam-styled mech, not unlike D. Va. Pharah would then be given her armor and her design would eventually fall on the blue armored woman we see today. Pharah ended up going through many changes, but it is safe to say that her final design was the right way to go with her.

21 The Guns Pack A Big Boom

Reaper is one of the most apparent villains in the Overwatch canon. Since the initial cinematic trailer, he was always painted as such and continued to be the bad guy in most of the cinematic shorts where he is featured. Originally a hero of Overwatch, after something happened he became the Reaper he is now. This fact will look at a seemingly cut feature from Reaper's design. In the first cinematic trailer, Reaper's shotguns can shoot out grenades on top of the bullets. Despite this being a somewhat big part of the animation, this feature would never be seen again, in both the game and any other trailers. The reason for this feature being cut is currently unknown, but it's interesting to see, since the other abilities seen in the trailers made the transition into the game.

20 Can We Get A Skin Of This At Least?

Sometimes, the developers brought in their old ideas to be tossed into the ring of Overwatch, and former Senior Vice President of Creative Design and Story Development Chris Metzen (and voice of Bastion) would bring just that over. Soldier 76 was once an unpublished comic book character. The final design and the design of the comic version of Soldier 76 are near identical, the only major difference is the lack of a ski mask. Since Solider 76 was already designed as a character with a backstory, his abilities would be built around this. He was designed to make it easier for traditional first-person shooter players to make the jump to Overwatch, and he is the hero with the closet tool kit to more traditional shooter games.

19 The Girl With No Name

Sombra had the most infamous development in Overwatch's current history. She had an incredibly long "ARG" that was more tedious than enjoyable to many fans of the game. When Sombra ended up finally being released, she was met with lackluster praise and painted as a bad character by much of the general audience when she came out. Despite all this, Sombra has a very complex and interesting backstory. She is a hacker that is making her way to the top by making connections. However, Sombra is the only character in Overwatch that does not have a public real name. She is simply known as "Sombra" because she deleted her old personality so she could not be tracked down. All other characters have revealed their name (some from Sombra herself).

18 Showing Her Pride

Tracer is the mascot for Overwatch, appearing on much of the promotional material and the cover of the game itself, a life-sized statue is even on Blizzard's campus. Tracer was taken from Blizzard's canceled game Titan, which would indirectly lead to Overwatch's creation. Due to this, Tracer was one of the first characters developed for the game, and as such is considered the "Rosetta Stone" of the game. She never was indented to be the mascot character, but Chris Metzen stated that Tracer was "one of the first characters we really got to know" and that Tracer would end up becoming loved internally. A bonus, more well-known fact is that Tracer is the currently the only character to be confirmed as "LGBT," specifically she is canonically lesbian.

17 He's A Regular Snow White

Bastion is one of the more interesting characters in Overwatch. An omnic relic of the war, now one in love with nature. However, Bastion does appear to suffer a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as seen in his animated short. However, the bird he befriends helps to keep him calm. There are many omnics in the rooster, such as Zenyatta and Orisia. However, Bastion is the only character in Overwatch that is officially genderless, and is always referred to as "it." Bastion has a surprisingly rich backstory for a seemingly simple character. There were multiple Bastion units and the Bastion that appears as a hero in Overwatch is the last of his kind, seen in the title of his short "The Last Bastion."

16 Thou Shalt Not Say Hanzo Main

Hanzo probably has the largest internet following, generally for bad reasons. The term "Hanzo Main" being thrown around as an insult, a girl in school once got in trouble by calling a classmate that. Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch's Game Director once jokingly stated in an acceptance speech that it went out to "All the Hanzo Mains." There was something else that Hanzo would get, a whole church based around him. A Brazilian Overwatch fan set up the National Church of Hanzo in order to prove how easy it was to open a church. Some fun facts about the religion are that you can request Tuesdays off for religious studies, and are actually forbidden to use the words "Hanzo Main." Baptism for the religion is playing one game of Overwatch, but if you can't afford it, Paladins will also work.

15 Even The Best Heroes Deserve A Tea Break

Junkrat is one of the characters in Overwatch with the most secrets. An interaction inside the game refers to Junkrat having some kind of treasure that's incredibly valuable, but it is unknown as to what it is (at this time, anyway). One secret would be revealed by Jeff Kaplan on the Overwatch forums. A curious user questioned as to what is inside the canteen that Junkrat carries around. Does it contain the treasure mentioned earlier? Not exactly, but what it does contain is just as surprising! Jeff Kaplan confirmed that it contains milk tea with boba in it, half sweet. One would expect it to have water of some sort, but it is instead a delicious tea-based beverage. Either way, it's a tasty treat to carry around!

14 She'll Melt Your Heart

Mei can be described as a nerdy scientist with an adorable personality. However, this arctic lass wasn't always that way. One of Mei's earliest concepts painted her as a bounty hunter. Blizzard from the start wanted to have a hero with abilities relating to ice and the cold, and her original design had her use that to capture her targets. Blizzard would end up wanting to take a different route and wanted a character to showcase the "world can always use more heroes" concept. They would decide to take a different approach to the character and wanted her to be a more "normal" hero. Blizzard desired this to highlight their idea of a normal person becoming inspired to walk down the path of heroism.

13 The Trailblazer

Torbjörn is one of the more basic uses of a builder in an action-heavy team-based server since Team Fortress 2's Engineer, and parallels between the two are clearly apparent. Torbjörn was actually the first character ever modeled for the game's engine. Overwatch was handcrafted and did not borrow from other engines. Torbjörn was the one to show just what the engine was capable of and paved the way for the rest of the creation of Overwatch. While the game could have been made very realistic looking, Blizzard ultimately decided that it wouldn't be a good fit for the Blizzard feel, and they wanted Overwatch to fit the scope of the rest of Blizzard's games. This would be driven home thanks to the cinematic department doing a fantastic job.

12 A Bilingual Babe

Widowmaker, along with Tracer and Reaper, was one of the first characters developed for the game. It makes sense, almost every shooter has a sniper class and Widowmaker gives a unique spin on it. Her gun being able to shoot automatically while unscoped being the biggest. Not only that, she is the only one where her bullets don't have fall off. That's not the only unique thing about Widowmaker because her voice actress voiced both the American and French versions of the character. While this seems small, Chloe Hollings (the voice actress) is the only cast member of Overwatch to do a voice of a character in more than one version of the game. While Bastion technically does, Widowmaker is the only one that uses dialogue.

11 D. Va Plays To Win

D. Va is one of the youngest characters in Overwatch, beaten only by Orisa. She is a gamer and rather well known as well. Posters for "Heroes of my Storm" appear in the game, starring Hana Song, which is D. Va's actual name. D. Va actually overlaps with another Blizzard game: Starcraft II. There was a promotional image showcasing D. Va has the world's best Starcraft II player, and was rank number 1 in the StarCraft II World Championship Series when she was only 16. Her skills as a gamer would translate to being a great mech pilot, and she would be drafted to do so to defend her homeland from the omnics as these professional gamers were the only people who could pilot the complicated mech suit's weapons and abilities with ease.

10 Created To Be Original

Orisa was added into the game much to the surprise of just about everyone. Her teasing directly went alongside with Doomfist, so when she came out of seemingly nowhere before Doomfist everyone was caught off guard. She was seen as being able to do what many other heroes could, though on a much weaker scale. She is the youngest character in the roster, only a month old. Granted, she is an omnic created by a child which is why she is so young. Jeff Kaplan stated that Orisa was made a female omnic in response to criticisms that some of the female characters lacked uniqueness some of the male characters had. It can be seen in Orisa, as she is one of the most uniquely designed characters.

9 A Real Family Man

Reinhardt has always been a character that is the ideal man forged in the battlefield. Always fighting the good fight, long after the end of Overwatch. In multiple interactions and in the comics it's clear to see that he cares deeply for those that surround him. A fun fact about Reinhardt is that every Christmas he and his companion Brigitte (who maintains his heavy armor) goes to Torbjörn's home to spend it with him and his family. Reinhardt would spend much time with Brigitte after the shut down of Overwatch. Reinhardt would vow to continue fighting for justice until the suit itself would fall apart. The two would fight together and eventually, Overwatch would be recalled and put back into action, Reinhardt would be in Greenland.

8 Never To Be Unmasked

Roadhog has some rather interesting lore behind him. Not too much is known about him, except that he's a criminal that was hired by Junkrat to act as his bodyguard. The duo would get into all sorts of trouble, and be wanted criminals with a rather high bounty. The duo love mayhem, and it is incredibly apparent. Roadhog is a man of mystery, and is the only character in all of Overwatch to never show their face in any form. Some characters that normally have masks or visors, such as Solider 76 and Reinhardt, can be seen without them in alternate costumes. However, Roadhog is always wearing some sort of mask; even in his Halloween costume where it appears though it's meant to be skin, the mask flap could still be seen.

7 He's Not The Easiest Monkey

Winston is one of the more iconic characters in Overwatch's roster, and has been featured in many of the cinematic trailers and story-wise is the one who convinces Overwatch to band together once more. Funnily enough, despite appearing in so much, Winston is the hardest character to animate in the game, as revealed during the 2014 BlizzCon Panel. This is due to all the armor that Winston wears, as well as having to animate for both his normal look and his Primal Rage form. Winston's appearance was the first part of him to be designed, and his abilities in the game would be built around this. The Overwatch team fell in love with the Winston idea right away, and they really wanted to make sure the character worked.

6 She's Got More Strength Than You

Zarya is a more non-traditional design for a character, especially a female one. Unlike a lot of other characters in the game, she is an incredibly muscular bodybuilder, and the strongest looking character in the game. She only has short pink hair, and a tattoo of the number 512, which is assumed to be how much she can lift. Her gun is rather unique: it shoots a straight beam of plasma out that charges as her shields are damaged. The tesla canon is extremely heavy, and only Zarya was strong enough to hold it. That's because it was pulled from a tank attacking Russia that Zarya pulled off with her bare hands. It's a great act of strength that highlights the literal strength of the character herself.