Overwatch 2026 Season 1 will introduce five new heroes, among them a jetpack-piloting cat more than 10 years in the making.
The matter-of-factly named Jetpack Cat is a new support hero joining the Overwatch roster on February 10, and they come with an impressive assortment of utility abilities.
The Lifeline ability transforms the jetpack into transport mode, allowing Jetpack Cat to tow and heal an ally. Purr activates a healing aura and knocks back enemies, while Frenetic Flight allows for increased acceleration. Jetpack Cat’s Ultimate ability, Catnapper, sees the feline dive towards the ground, knocking down surrounding enemies and tethering the nearest opponent to the jetpack.
Jetpack Cat
Jetpack Cat is just one of the five new heroes launching as part of Season 1, but they might be the one that’s been the longest-time-coming. In a GameSpot interview from 2017, then Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan revealed Blizzard had once abandoned the idea of a jetpack-flying cat hero during development.
“Then there was this one hero that was a huge internal debate on the team because we just loved it so much but it didn’t make it,” Kaplan said. “It was this jetpack and it had this cat that laid in it, like a cat does. Then every once in a while it would paw at the controls. It was a cat in a jetpack. That was one of those moments that helped define Overwatch. We just went, ‘Yeah, that’s probably too far.’ But yes. We had a cat hero.”
Flash forward to 2026, and Jetpack Cat is now ready for action. Or naps, as cats are prone to doing. Jetpack Cat joins Overwatch’s roster as part of what Blizzard is calling a new “story-driven era” for Overwatch–one that is dropping the game’s former “2” moniker.
Season 1 will kick off the first of a year-long storyline, the Reign of Talon, that will be reflected both in-game through map changes and events, as well as outside it in the form of cinematics, short stories, and comics. The next year will also see far more frequent hero launches, with a total of 10 new heroes set to arrive in Overwatch in 2026–five in Season 1 and an additional hero each subsequent season.
