Imagine booting up Overwatch 2, getting to the main menu, and hearing that classic X-Men animated series theme song along with Soldier: 76 in full Cyclops cosplay.
That is the dream that I now have after inspiration from a March 25 Reddit thread pining for a collaboration between OW2 and the new X-Men ’97 animated series on Disney Plus. And I can’t get it out of my head. It has to happen, immediately.
X-Men ’97’s two-episode premiere last week has been living in my head rent-free (as someone who grew up with the original show, it’s incredible), and now this skin collab idea is too. Posted by a user named cobanat on the Overwatch Reddit page, it matches up several OW2 heroes with their X-Men counterparts perfectly.
The examples given include Soldier: 76 as Cyclops, Baptiste as Bishop, Mercy as Jean Grey, Genji as Gambit, Tracer as Jubilee, Sojourn as Storm, Echo as Morph, Junker Queen as Wolverine, Zenyatta as Professor Charles Xavier, Moira as Rogue, Sigma as Magneto, Winston as Beast, and Mauga as Juggernaut.
Magneto Sigma is perfect as they both float around effortlessly and hurl objects at people, and Gambit Genji would be sublime simply by swapping the sword for a staff and shurikens for energized playing cards.
Blizzard has shown a penchant for crossover collaborative skins, including the recent Cowboy Bebop skins, plus last year’s One Punch Man and Le Sserafim collabs, so it’s entirely possible. But as an X-Men fan and Overwatch player, this needs to happen. Please.
I can’t imagine the logistics of pulling off a collab like this with such an established IP, but I and many others would likely pay a hefty price for skins such as these. It’s likely too late for the X-Men ’97 collab to coincide with the show’s first season, but perhaps Marvel and Blizzard can get together in time for season two.