Blizzard Entertainment is set to merge two beloved universes with the upcoming Overwatch 2 and Gundam Wing crossover. Launching April 29 at 11am PT, just one week after the start of Season 16, the partnership will introduce four new Gundam-themed skins, transforming Overwatch favorites into mobile suit warriors. Mercy becomes Wing Zero. Reaper dons the guise of Deathscythe. Soldier: 76 is Tallgeese. While Ramattra assumes the form of Epyon.
To understand the inspiration and process behind this crossover, we sat down with art director Dion Rogers and associate director of product management Aimee Dennett. The conversation revealed a collaboration rooted in passion, artistry, and reverence for two beloved worlds.
A Passion Project Years In The Making
The Overwatch team didn’t just stumble into Gundam, they chased it.
“It was a bucket list IP to finally get to work with because it’s influenced so many artists on the team,” said Rogers. “The cool giant robots fighting each other. It’s a dream to finally get to work in this world that has inspired so many of us.”
Working closely with Bandai, the team aligned the crossover with Gundam Wing’s 30th anniversary - a serendipitous moment of timing that helped seal the deal. “We always wanted to do it,” Dennett said. “This was the perfect opportunity, so all the pieces fell into place.”
Merging the distinct silhouettes of Overwatch’s heroes with the mechanical aesthetic of Gundam wasn’t a simple copy-paste job. Every armor plate, every wing, every glowing core needed to serve both lore and design.
Take Mercy, for instance. “This is probably her first skin where you don’t see her face or any skin at all," Rogers said. “It’s hard for her to lose the most iconic part of her silhouette - her wings. So it was actually a pretty cool challenge for the artist to say, ‘OK, let’s give Mercy a skin that’s a kind of robotic mobile suit for Wing Zero.'”
Ramattra, on the other hand, was a natural fit for Epyon. “They both transform, and they both have that robotic look,” Rogers explained. “There was a lot of sketching to maintain the silhouettes of our heroes while still being as transformative as possible with them.”
Choosing The Right Heroes For The Gundam Treatment
While fans may speculate about power levels or thematic parallels, the truth is, the skin selections were guided more by instinct and aesthetic chemistry than rigid rules.
“We actually tried a few different heroes at first,” Rogers revealed. “We tried Mauga as Heavyarms. We tried Tallgeese on Ana at first because they have a similar sniper, but someone took a stab at Soldier as Tallgeese, and when we put the two together, everyone thought, ‘Wow, that Soldier just looks so cool.’ It’s funny, there’s never really an exact science for how these things happen. Sometimes it’s just trial and error.”
It was an iterative, collaborative process. “We’ll do a bunch of drawings, the teams come together, and sometimes we’ll say, ‘Hey, put a star next to the one you like,'” Rogers said. “It’s a team effort almost every time. It’s not possible for everyone to know every fandom, so we ensure to talk to the team and let them help select who’s included.”
The collision of two fandoms is bound to create big expectations, and the team took that responsibility seriously.
“We wanted to be as authentic as possible,” Dennett said. “It really helps that we have so many fans of Gundam on the team, that it’s pretty easy to stay authentic to the fans. In this case, we almost had too many people wanting to get involved, so there was no shortage of ideas. No moment of, ‘Man, what are we going to do for this IP?’ I would say this was a pretty fun experience.”
Each skin includes detailed nods that hardcore Gundam fans will recognize. For Reaper’s Deathscythe skin, they couldn’t give him the weapon outright, but his victory poses and play-of-the-game animations feature a scythe with custom VFX.
And beyond skins, there’s a special touch that longtime Gunpla builders will appreciate: the lobby art for the event was drawn by one of the very same artists who illustrates official Gundam model kit boxes.
“That was one of my favorite parts,” Dennett said. “I’m really excited to see reactions to that.”
Success Measured By Fans, Not Numbers
With four intricately crafted skins, Easter egg-laden designs, and a heavy dose of fandom love, the Overwatch 2 x Gundam Wing collaboration is more than just a visual update, it’s a mashup of two cultural icons. And for the team, success won’t just be about sales or engagement metrics, it’ll be about resonance.
“I think the biggest test is always whether we made Overwatch fans happy, even those who might not be as familiar with Gundam, and then looking at the reactions of the most hardcore Gundam fans,” Dennett said. “That’s usually a good rule of thumb for whether we really nailed it.”
While this crossover focuses solely on Gundam Wing, the team hinted that more could be on the horizon if fans respond positively.
“There’s so much untouched ground,” Dennett said. “I’m a big fan of The Witch from Mercury and think that there’s some really cool fits there.”
And yes, for the Ana mains like me holding out hope: “The Overwatch team would kill us if we didn’t do more,” she added with a laugh.
Overwatch 2 players won’t have to wait long to decide for themselves: the collab launches April 29.
