Overwatch 2 Teases Hero 45

Summary

Teasers found in Overwatch 2 suggest Hero 45 could be a female gladiator coming in Season 20.
The gladiator hero may be a melee tank character based on the release cadence.
Fans speculate about the mysterious hero’s silhouette and weapon design seen in Arena Victoriae.

Overwatch 2 has seemingly teased its 45th hero via a banner and a weapon display found on the new Stadium map, Arena Victoriae. These new clues corroborate several other teasers fans have found for this character, heavily suggesting the mysterious gladiator hero will arrive in Overwatch 2 Season 20.

During Overwatch 2’s recent Spotlight event, Blizzard revealed two of the three heroes coming in 2025: Freja, a mobile damage hero releasing in Season 16, and a watery support currently codenamed “Aqua.” However, players have found multiple teasers for the third hero since then, including a doodle of a sword-wielding gladiator seen in the Overwatch 2 Spotlight, and placeholder text in Brigitte’s hero page that said “Gladiators Gonna Gladiate.”

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Now, fans have spotted some more teasers that heavily support Hero 45 being a melee gladiator of some kind. Players discovered two Easter eggs while playtesting Arena Victoriae, a new Control map from Overwatch 2’s Stadium game mode: a banner with the silhouette of a gladiator wielding a high-tech sword or spear, as well as a display featuring the same weapon. Both assets are marked with XLV – the Roman numeral for 45 – but the banner also has the words “La Lupa Della Ritorsione,” which translates to “The Wolf of Retribution” or “Retaliation” in Italian. Overwatch Cavalry shared images of both of these teasers together on Twitter.

‘The Wolf of Retribution’ – Overwatch 2’s 45th Hero?

Judging from the shape of the weapon, this combatant is not Camilla, Titus, or Magnus – the three mechanical gladiators whose statues are located on the Colosseo map. The silhouette on the banner looks quite different from Zephyrus, one of the two gladiators who have advertisements around the same map, and while it is more similar to his competitor Maximus, the Italian definite article “La” used on the banner is associated with feminine nouns. This, plus the previous teaser hinting that Overwatch 2 might have been testing this hero’s kit on Brigitte’s model, suggests Hero 45 identifies as female, and is likely a completely new character.

Assuming this mysterious gladiator is Hero 45, they will almost certainly be a melee-oriented damage or tank character. Considering Overwatch 2 is getting a DPS and support in 2025 already, a tank would fit its release cadence better, especially since the damage role already has the most hero options. That said, Reinhardt is already a dedicated melee tank, and heroes like Doomfist and Hazard have significant melee aspects to their kits, while Genji is the closest thing to a melee damage hero in Overwatch 2 right now.

Season 16, along with Stadium and the Arena Victoriae map, go live in Overwatch 2 on April 22. Fans should be sure to check out these teasers for “The Wolf of Retribution” in-game for themselves once the game mode is live.