It’s extremely rare for any game franchise to arrive fully formed, but Blizzard did a magnificent job with Overwatch, an extremely fun shooter with an ever-expanding roster of characters. More intriguingly, Blizzard has continued to flesh out the heroes and their world through a series of short animated films that often rival Pixar in terms of quality and emotional engagement. Perhaps someday soon, we’ll get an Overwatch animated series that can fully utilize that groundwork. But until then, this fan-created trailer will have to do.
Don’t get too excited about the title. It was created as an April Fool’s Day prank by Lion Montages. But as a proof of concept piece, it makes a pretty convincing argument for a real Overwatch movie.
Via ComicBook.com, this trailer brings together the disparate shorts and assembles a narrative that finds members of the team wondering whether they should return to Overwatch after it was forcibly shut down years before. Winston and Reinhardt get most of the focus, but the video also finds the time to play with the complex bond between Hanzo and Genji.
While Netflix could be an ideal home for an Overwatch animated series, this is a franchise that may be able to hold its own on the big screen as well. The backstories and personalities in Overwatch are so strong that they could easily be translated to a different medium. That said, we would want Blizzard to be in charge of keeping Overwatch‘s strengths intact. Quality control is still very important, and most video game adaptations fall short when compared to the original. We want Overwatch to have a better fate than that.
What do you think about this Overwatch trailer? Should the game be adapted as a series or a movie? Answer the call and share your thoughts in the comment section below!
Images: Blizzard
More Overwatch fun!
- This real-life Doomfist Gauntlet packs quite a punch
- What Overwatch would look like as a fighting game
- Overwatch meets Pokémon in this fan short
