Overwatch 2's Venture is the series' first-ever non-binary hero

Overwatch 2 is adding a brand new hero to the roster as part of their Season 9 roadmap, in the form of DPS character, Venture. What makes this a particularly special addition is the fact that Venture is confirmed to use they/them pronouns, and they will therefore be the game's first-ever non-binary character.

The Overwatch 2 hero lineup has been home to many canonically queer characters since the game's inception, and Venture expands on this by being the first trans hero. Although we don't have a great deal of information on their abilities, personality, and playstyle just yet, their design and overall vibes have gone down well on social media after their introduction at Blizzcon. Plus, we did get a sneak peek in the form of some Venture gameplay during the convention, which you can check out below.

The early gameplay footage comes from a playtest, so the loading screen probably won't be what we'll get when they're released, but from what we've seen, we think Venture will be a lot of fun to play.

One of the main features is the fact that Venture can burrow their way underground for increased freedom of movement. They can also gain vertical mobility from this when they spring back out into the fray, plus the drill element looks to deal some sort of area damage when Venture reappears. They also have a dash ability, so they look to be a character based on close-range and rapid movement. Their weapon has been confirmed to be a projectile, with a set distance and a burst of exploding damage upon landing.

Venture is likely to be added to the game at some point in 2024, because for now Blizzard is focused on releasing a new tank hero, Mauga on December 5, 2023. But it's refreshing to see Overwatch 2 continue to expand its diverse range of playable characters, and the roster now has several queer-identifying heroes.

Both Tracer and Pharah have been confirmed to be lesbians, Baptiste is canonically bisexual and Lifeweaver is canonically pansexual. Soldier: 76 is also gay, and so with the addition of Venture as the first non-binary hero, players have several choices as far as representation goes.

Overwatch 2 also celebrated this diversity with their first-ever pride event earlier in the year, but unfortunately, some regions didn't have access to the event at all, thanks to their antiquated laws when it comes to sexuality and gender expression and identification. We do not know if this will be the case when Venture is released, but since other queer characters haven't faced these issues, we hope that Venture won't, either. Whether they will be openly non-binary in-game in these regions, we don't know yet.

But that's everything we know so far about the next queer character to be released in Overwatch 2. For now, we await the arrival of Mauga, who had a weekend-long playtest throughout Blizzcon 2023. For more Overwatch 2 content, be sure to check out our character guides for both Kiriko and Genji, plus we have a full hero tier list based on the current meta.