Watch – Overwatch‘s First Animated Short Tells The Story of Winston

The first of many Overwatch shorts tells us how Winston the Gorilla came to be.

Earlier in the month, Blizzard told us that its upcoming shooter Overwatch would have a series of companion animated shorts and comics in the lead-up to its release. Well, it has now just released the first of those shorts: “Recall” – which focuses on the character Winston, and how he became the giant science gorilla that he is in the game. You can check out the 8-minute video to the right.

Winston’s story also gives us a bit more information on what exactly Overwatch is, and why he has decided to bring it back now. The trailer is a great bit of fun, and up to the top-notch standard of cinematics that Blizzard is known for. It’s a great way to build up plot and character information for a multiplayer only shooter.

According to Blizzard, we should be getting several more of these shorts before the game’s release, as well as some free comics that will focus on other characters. The first comic will focus on McCree, and is due out in April.

What’s particular interesting about the video is that it may have revealed some upcoming characters. Overwatch‘s roster currently stands at 21, but many of the faces we saw at the end of the video are completely new to us. Have a look at the 15 new faces below:

Some of them could simply be alternate skins for existing heroes (one in particular appears to be Pharah’s mother, who was a part of the original Overwatch team), but a lot of them look quite unique. Blizzard has not yet revealed any plans to add heroes post-launch, but did confirm that any new heroes added would be free.