Overwatch 2’s Juno: The Hero That Almost Was – A Glimpse into the Tank’s Radical Redesign

Overwatch 2’s Juno: The Hero That Almost Was – A Glimpse into the Tank’s Radical Redesign

September 21, 2024 Catherine Williams - Chief Editor Sports

Published on: Saturday, September 21, 2024 06:00

Overwatch 2’s Juno: The Hero That Almost Was – A Glimpse into the Tank’s Radical Redesign

Key Takeaways

  • Overwatch 2 showed off early concept art for Juno, showcasing significant design changes from the original idea.
  • New support hero Juno has had her hairstyle, weapons, and clothing design revised ahead of the final release.
  • Fans have responded positively to the behind-the-scenes footage of Juno’s design process and are looking forward to the arrival of the final hero in 2024.

Overwatch 2 has just revealed more early concept art for Juno, and the art shows a very different version of the Martian support hero than what players received.According to these Overwatch 2 images, Juno’s hair, weapons, clothing design, and even color scheme went through a lot of iterations to get to where it is now.

Juno is the newest character added to Overwatch 2, and the first support and second all-around hero added in 2024. Juno was first unveiled at BlizzCon 2023, codenamed “Space Ranger”. She is the optimistic daughter of Mei’s old friend Jiayi, the first natural-born Martian in the story of Overwatch 2, and a healer who uses anti-gravity technology to move quickly on the battlefield.

However, the Juno fans are seeing now in Overwatch 2 is very different from some of her early concepts. In a recent behind-the-scenes blog post, Overwatch 2 concept artist Daryl Tan and lead narrative designer Miranda Moyer shared images of an early version of Juno, as well as some insight into her design. While her pulse torpedoes, helmet, and gravity boots have all been there to some extent, elements of her design changed drastically before finalizing the final version.

Concept art of Juno, the “space ranger” from Overwatch 2

The free-floating drone that fires Juno’s pulse torpedoes has gone through multiple iterations, some of which are attached via retractable arms. Likewise, her helmet and suit have had multiple different designs, and her nearly every hairstyle and facial expression exudes intensity, confidence, and calm—all of which are very different from the game’s heroic and anxious heroes. Most notably, Juno’s medical blaster in Overwatch 2 has gone through many different versions, from a long rifle to an arm-mounted “star fragmentation cannon” that looks like it came straight out of Metroid.

Needless to say, fans loved seeing these behind-the-scenes looks at Juno. If the wealth of fan art of Juno in Overwatch 2 is any indication, this charming hero has always been a favorite among players, and learning about the design process behind her will only make her even more endearing to players. That being said, some fans actually liked some of the scrapped Juno concepts better than the ones that made it into the game, and they were sad to see them left on the cutting room floor.

Regardless, Juno won’t be the newest character in Overwatch 2 for long. The third and final hero of Overwatch 2 in 2024 will appear in Season 14, which is expected to arrive in mid-to-late December, and while little is known about them at this point, players have already begun to speculate about who this mysterious character might be.

Source: Compiled by 0x News from GAMERANT. Copyright belongs to the author Eric Law. No reproduction without permission