Summary
- Overwatch 2 missed out on Starscream Pharah and Soundwave Lucio skins for Transformers collab.
- Unicron Wrecking Ball skin also cut from the crossover, but chances for return remain open.
- Developers not ruling out future Transformers collab runs, fans hopeful for scrapped skins to resurface.
Overwatch 2 almost had Starscream Pharah, Soundwave Lucio, and Unicron Wrecking Ball as skins for the Transformers collaboration. Though these incredible skin concepts didn’t make it into the Overwatch 2 crossover, there's still a chance they could come back again if Transformers ever returns to the game.
The official Transformers collaboration just recently began in Overwatch 2. In addition to an in-game event that rewards icons, character cosmetics, and Battle Pass experience, the Overwatch 2 x Transformers crossover introduced four incredible new skins: Optimus Prime Reinhardt, Megatron Ramattra, Arcee Illari, and Bumblebee Bastion.
However, it seems like Overwatch 2 almost had a few other Transformers skins that sound like they would have been perfect. During an interview with ComicBook, Overwatch 2 art director Dion Rogers mentioned a few skin ideas that ended up on the cutting room floor. “We did explore a few other heroes like Pharah as Starscream actually, and Lucio, we tried to make Soundwave work on him,” he explained. “There's some favorites on the team that we landed on. The concept team did a really good job of just exploring a bunch of ideas.” Aimee Dennett, associate director of product management for Overwatch 2, also revealed that Wrecking Ball almost had a Unicron skin, but the idea was also scrapped in favor of more iconic Transformers.
Scrapped Overwatch 2 x Transformers Crossover Skins
- Pharah as Starscream
- Lucio as Soundwave
- Wrecking Ball as Unicron
Beyond these skins, Rogers also brought up Gimlock as another character he would have loved to use. "Grimlock is actually one of my favorite Transformers,” he said, “and I wish we had a chance to include Dinobots in some way in this collab." Unfortunately, no current Overwatch 2 characters resemble a T. Rex yet, but that could always change in the future – and the developers aren’t against another run of this event down the road. “We're definitely never counting out doing something again where there's so much idea and passion for it,” Dennett confirmed. “The issue was much less like, 'oh man, who do we do' and is more like, 'okay, we can't do all of these.'"
“We did explore a few other heroes like Pharah as Starscream actually, and Lucio, we tried to make Soundwave work on him. There's some favorites on the team that we landed on. The concept team did a really good job of just exploring a bunch of ideas.”
Many Overwatch 2 players were devastated to learn these incredible skin ideas that never saw the light of day. While the skins Overwatch 2 made for this collaboration have been well-received, Pharah as Starscream and Lucio as Soundwave seem like natural fits, and Wrecking Ball as Unicron the Planet Eater is something fans would have loved to see. These skins also would have equalized the ratio of heroic and villainous skins, as the official collab only has a single Decepticon, but three Autobots. Either way, players are hopeful that, as long as the Transformers collaboration is successful, they could see these skins some time in the future.
The recent Overwatch 2 collaborations with other franchises have been quite popular. Before the Transformers collab, it had done crossovers with anime in the form of One Punch Man and Cowboy Bebop, the K-pop band Le Sserafim, and even with Porsche. Now that it has broken the seal on wild collaborations, fans can expect even more exciting Overwatch 2 crossovers in future seasons.
Overwatch 2
- Released
- August 10, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
Overwatch 2 is an always-on and ever-evolving free-to-play, team-based action game set in an optimistic future, where every match is the ultimate 5v5 battlefield brawl. Power up your railgun and disrupt the battlefield as Sojourn, or yield your axe and command attention as Junker Queen. Battle to take control of a robot and move it toward the enemy base in the new Push Mode. Bring the fight to new destinations across the globe in iconic locations like New York, Rome, Monte Carlo and Rio. Daily challenges and frequent updates mean there is always something new to play.
