Just a few days after revealing Overwatch 2’s newest hero, the long-awaited Junker Queen, Blizzard Entertainment rolled out a new animated short for the character — the first in more than three years. (The last was the Ashe, Cassidy, and Echo-starring “Reunion” short from November 2018.)
Junker Queen’s animated short, “The Wastelander,” details how Odessa “Dez” Stone claimed the throne of Junkertown and who she had to dispose of to establish her rule. It also offers a tease of backstory, showing the queen and her family were exiled from Junkertown when Odessa was just a child. It’s not a particularly dark story, despite that — Junker Queen is clearly having fun mixing it up in the Scrapyard with brand-new characters Geiger and Meri, and even though she’s here for revenge, she doesn’t straight-up murder Mason Howl, the Junker King, to secure her crown.
“The Wastelander” offers a cinematic peek at Junker Queen’s kit, including her magnetic throwing knife, her hefty ax, and her makeshift shotgun, as well as her ultimate ability. There might also be a peek at a future skin for Junker Queen, since her animated short appearance differs slightly from her in-game look. To top it off, Blizzard’s new animated short ends with a very catchy punk rock tune about Junkertown’s reigning boss.
That song is also included in a short origin story video featuring Junker Queen, which you can watch below.
Junker Queen will be playable in Overwatch 2’s forthcoming beta, and when the game launches as a free-to-play title on Oct. 4. Overwatch 2 is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.