'Overwatch' Sneakily Confirmed a Fan-Favorite Character; Fans Are Losing It

With the announcement of Overwatch’s 27th hero, Brigitte, came the sneaky confirmation that a beloved feline character exists within the video game’s universe. That’s right, Jetpack Cat is real.

This critter-hero is literally just a cat with a jetpack. Jetpack Cat was hinted at in some of the teasers leading up to Brigitte’s release on Wednesday. The Lindholms, it would seem, are cat people, because Blizzard actually teased two different cats associated with Brigitte and Torbjörn. For all we know, Brigitte’s been strapping jetpacks onto cats her whole life.

The first bit of evidence came on Tuesday, with a tweet from Blizzard featuring schematics for some kind of shield. (We now know Brigitte wields this shield in the game.) You can clearly see a ginger cat’s tail and paw in the top-right corner. To the left, encircled by a coffee cup stain, is what looks an awful lot like a cat with a jetpack strapped to its back.

The Post-it directly above that sketch has a frown face with the word “kattmatt” written. “Katt” definitely means “cat,” and it could be a misspelling for “cat food,” which would be “kattmat.” But our Swedish translator says it seems like a made-up word that roughly translates to “exhausted like a cat” or perhaps even a fake word like “catxausted.” Awesome.

Swedish is the native language of Torbjörn and Brigitte, so this is definitely their workshop. “Kompalt” means “compact,” referring to how Brigitte’s energy shield is retractable. Just above the shield, she wrote “morrhår” (whiskers) next to a few question marks and a cat face. Did she consider putting more whiskers on her shield’s lion face?

Brigitte’s origin story video, released on Wednesday, includes a shot of her trying to put armor and other gear onto a different cat in the workshop. A fat, white cat appears from 0:20 to 0:29 with a seemingly sour disposition. (“Matt” in Swedish can mean all sorts of bad attitudes like “dull,” “wishy-washy,” or “languid,” which might explain the note.)

Last April, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan revealed that in the early development stages of the game, jetpack cat was one of the planned heroes, but the character just didn’t fit into the game’s lineup from a practical standpoint.

These little Easter eggs might just be a nod to fans, but many of them are now clamoring to make Jetpack Cat a real playable character.

Fans have about as much zeal for Jetpack Cat as they do Pickle Rick:

The jokes never stop:

Even fan art is already happening:

Some are even getting retweets from the official Overwatch Twitter account:

The most optimistic Overwatch fans are already wondering if Jetpack Cat might come out as the 28th hero, the next after Brigitte. We can only hope.

Brigitte is currently available on the public test region only on PC, with a console release due out in a week or two.

Check out Jeff Kaplan’s developer update detailing how Brigitte’s character functions in-game: