If early iterations of characters had survived the development process, Tracer could have been a very different Overwatch hero. Speaking to GameSpot at BlizzCon 2026, game director Aaron Keller mentioned that he had been playing Overwatch since 2013, “since Tracer was shooting lasers out of her eyes.”
When questioned about such a strange sequence of words, Keller explained that the bizarre version of Tracer came from the first days of Overwatch’s engine development in late 2013.
“When we were creating the Overwatch engine, you know, so this is late 2013, the first day we got Tracer in we all ran around but we didn’t actually have a projectile system yet,” he added. “So when you would fire, just like straight out of her eyes, [it was] two red lines.”
There weren’t even any proper visual effects involved at that point. According to Keller, it was “literally two red lines,” because the game was firing the weapon from the camera’s position. “And so we had a blast running around, just shooting lasers at each others,” he recalled.
While the laser-eyed Tracer was ultimately replaced by the pulse pistols players know today, the idea apparently hasn’t been completely banished from Blizzard’s considerations. When asked whether the team might ever bring back a hero capable of shooting lasers from their eyes, associate game director Alec Dawson responded positively.
“I think shooting lasers out of your eyes is pretty cool. Yeah, we can figure something out,” he said.
If Overwatch can finally have Jetpack Cat flying around the map, it can certainly have its roster stretched to accommodate laser beam eyes. “I think the possibilities are endless,” Dawson added. He also joked that GameSpot’s Jessica Cogswell should take credit if a future hero suddenly starts firing lasers from their eyes.
So, while Blizzard hasn’t announced a laser-eyed hero, the idea was explicitly floated around during our interview, and the developers certainly didn’t seem opposed to it. And honestly, after a decade of Overwatch, a hero shooting lasers out of their face might still be one of the least strange things Blizzard could add.
Overwatch’s next character is Doctrine, while two existing heroes are getting substantial reworks.
