[THIS IS YOUR QUEEN!
WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE!]
Who is the Junkertown Queen?
We’ve pieced together every bit of information about this mysterious new character to find
out who she is, what she wants and if she's likely to become Overwatch’s next playable
hero.
Here is everything found out!
The Queen was first mentioned in the Trailer for the Junkertown map at Gamescom 2017, where
she gave us a pretty good sense of her personality.
But with the new map released there are some fascinating clues as to the person behind
the voice.
The first, and most important, piece of information is this poster showing off the character.
Posters have been used repeatedly by the Overwatch developers to hint at future heroes.
D.VA was first hinted at on a poster in the Hanamurah Arcade before she was released in
the beta, and of course Doomfist appeared in Numbani long before his reveal.
Sombra and Ana also had similar visual hints on maps before their release.
Going back to the actual picture itself there are a few things of note.
First is her weapon, to me it looks a lot like a large axe or halberd.
The aesthetic is very mechanical and cobbled together from scrap, in a similar way to Junkrats
grenade launcher.
Her clothing is also in the same vein as our other 2 Australian characters, the spiked
shoulder pad is similar to Roadhogs, her general look is very punk rock with a mohican and
a lip ring.
To be honest she looks like a complete badass!
Now going back to her weapon, I cant find this particular axe anywhere on the map, but
there are some similar weapons scattered around, including some next to her throne.
What’s interesting about this is we have seen a similar technique used to show where
characters are living, for example on the Necropolis map you can see some of Ana’s
and Soldier 76’s belongings.
If there are her weapons perhaps she has a mechanic involving weapon switching, mixing
between a spear and this saw-axe thing, then perhaps the big axe from the poster is her
ultimate?!
This would be something quite interesting and new for Overwatch.
Or perhaps she normally carries the saw-axe as a melee weapon but can throw the spear
as her alternate fire?
There are a few other factors that indicate that the Queen could be a new playable hero.
There have been a number of named background characters that people have speculated could
become playable one day, but the Queen has a few things that they dont.
For example, if you cast your mind back to before Orisa’s release when people were
speculating Efi could be a new hero it was pointed out that her young age meant it just
wasn’t really a possibility.
We speculated she would instead have to make something to fight for her, which was essentially
correct as she built Orisa to defend Numbani.
The difference here is that the Queen is more than combat ready, she's clearly a seasoned
fighter and an adult.
Another example is Hammond the space ape, he was mentioned on the Horizon map and while
its possible he could be a new hero one day he really only exists as a name, and possibly
an image on the security cameras.
The Queen goes far beyond this.
She has a name, some art work and most importantly a Voice Actor, and a really good voice actor
at that.
As it stands its not been revealed who she is, but she sounds amazing!
So let's take a look at what we know about who the character is as a person.
She’s clearly in charge of Junkertown, a shanty town in Australia's Outback built around
the ruins of an Omnium.
She cunning and ruthless.
The society she’s formed around her has very few rules, and those that do exists basically
mean fend for yourself, and pay the queen, and she's certainly doing well for herself.
Another interesting note is that while she’s clearly a violent criminal, she doesn’t
seem to be insane, at least not to the level of Junkrat.
One thing she does have in common with Junkrat however is a hatred for Omnics.
During the Omnic Crisis Australia was nearly destroyed and following the war the government
gifted the countries omnium and surrounding lands to the Omnics in an attempt to establish
peace.
However this displaced a lot of the Outback's human residents and some of them formed a
group known as the Australian Liberation Front, they attacked the Omnium and sabotaged its
fusion core resulting in an explosion that destroyed much of the facility and irradiated
the region making it uninhabitable for most.
Those who stayed became known as the Junkers.
It's certainly possible the Queen was a part of the Australian Liberation Front.
The last thing we know about her is that she loves the Mech battles that take place in
the scrapyard.
She was described by developers are a former mech champion who actually rose to power as
a result of her prowess as a mech combatant in the Scrapyard.
Actually I wonder if that could be her ultimate, calling in a mech for a short duration, kind
of like the opposite to D.VA?
So when might we see the Queen released?
Well if she actually being teased here Blizzcon this November is the most likely date.
Its almost certain they will reveal a hero at the event and like we mentioned earlier
the only other real contender we have had mention of recently is Hammond.
However if this is a similar thing to Doomfist where it started out as just a background
character that the fans want turned into a real hero we could have a lot longer to wait.
What do you think about this potential new hero?
Do you want her to be playable or would you just like her to be another background character?
What role do you think she’ll fit into and what skills would you like to see?
Let me know in the comments below, as always this is James for Curse saying thanks for
watching, and enjoy the game!