Overwatch Devs Open to Laser-Eye Hero After Tracer's Wild Early Build

Remember when Tracer was just a pair of red laser eyes? No? Well, it actually happened during Overwatch's earliest days.

At BlizzCon 2026, game director Aaron Keller told GameSpot that he's been playing Overwatch since 2013, "since Tracer was shooting lasers out of her eyes." That's not a typo. Back in late 2013, when Blizzard was first building the Overwatch engine, Tracer didn't have her iconic pulse pistols. "The first day we got Tracer in we all ran around but we didn't actually have a projectile system yet," Keller explained. "So when you would fire, just like straight out of her eyes, [it was] two red lines." No fancy VFX, just two red lines firing from the camera's position. "And so we had a blast running around, just shooting lasers at each others," he added.

Obviously, that version of Tracer didn't make the final cut—she got her pulse pistols instead. But the idea of a laser-eyed hero isn't dead. When asked if the team might ever bring back a hero who shoots lasers from their eyes, associate game director Alec Dawson was totally on board. "I think shooting lasers out of your eyes is pretty cool. Yeah, we can figure something out," he said. He even joked that GameSpot's Jessica Cogswell should get credit if a future hero starts firing lasers from their eyes.

Dawson added, "I think the possibilities are endless." And honestly, after a decade of Overwatch, a hero shooting lasers out of their face might be one of the least strange things Blizzard could add. I mean, if Jetpack Cat can fly around the map, why not laser eyes?

So while Blizzard hasn't officially announced a laser-eyed hero, the idea was explicitly floated during the interview, and the devs didn't seem opposed. It's fun to think about what could have been—and what might still be.

In the meantime, Overwatch's next character is Doctrine, and two existing heroes are getting substantial reworks. But hey, a laser-eye hero? We'd play that.

What do you think? Would you want to see a hero with laser eyes in Overwatch? Let us know in the comments!