In a livestream, Overwatch head Jeff Kaplan talked about the early development of Overwatch. It was revealed that both Hammond (Wrecking Ball) and Sojourn existed as heroes before the release of Overwatch.
Who is Sojourn? Sojourn is a potential new heroine in Overwatch and apparently a high-ranking officer of the Overwatch organization. In a teaser for the new “Storm Rising” event, she told Soldier: 76 about the mission.
During the new Archive event “Storm Rising”, the heroes Tracer, Mercy, Genji, and Winston follow her tips. She also appears in the game as a voiced character.
There she presents herself as a young to middle-aged Black woman with white hair and some technical ornaments and scars on her face.
Sojourn also previously appeared in several comics and in the first animated short “Recall”. If you pause the video at exactly 7 minutes and 21 seconds, her image appears on Winston’s computer among former Overwatch agents (cover image).
Since when has Sojourn existed? During a livestream with streamer Fareeha from the Blizzard headquarters, Jeff Kaplan personally chimed in. He talked about how Sojourn and also the hamster Hammond existed before the game itself:
The concept of Hammond existed before Overwatch was even released. [Also] Sojourn is a good example. We started developing her around 2015, maybe even 2014.
Since Overwatch was only released in 2016, the concepts existed long before the finished game.
When will Sojourn come? Kaplan has not yet confirmed when or if Sojourn will actually appear as a playable hero. However, there have been speculations in advance and Kaplan’s statement seems to confirm them. Kaplan also gave some hints about who we can expect next:
- it will not be Sojourn
- it will not be Echo, whom we already know from Ashe’s appearance
- it will not be the Jetpack Cat, who “will never be made”
Thus, one of the previously speculated characters remains the dark Omnic whose face is shown at the end of the Havana mission. However, who it is remains unknown so far.
Meanwhile, some other heroes from Overwatch are making their way to distant Azeroth:
