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Overwatch's new hero Anran getting redesign after backlash from both players and voice actor

Overwatch voice actor Fareeha Anderson said Anran looked "more docile than the most peacekeeping support in the game." Now Blizzard are planning to change the new Hero's look.

Overwatch Anran — Image credit: Blizzard

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Wed Feb 11 2026

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Last week, Blizzard confirmed that they are doing a bit of a rollback on Overwatch, dropping the sequel status. Just like Coca-Cola, turns out no one likes a sudden change, so Overwatch 2 is now just Overwatch as a new season of gameplay is rolled out. However, that isn’t the only backtrack that Blizzard is doing with Overwatch, as they’ve confirmed that they are already planning to give new hero Anran a new look based on player feedback over the weekend.

While Anran only became a playable character in Overwatch recently, she was first introduced back in 2025 as part of Wuyang’s animated short and adjoining comic, Against the Tide. At this point, she was the supportive but fierce older brother to Wuyang and a terrifying fighter in her own right. She had a distinctive look that set her apart from many of the other heroes in Overwatch.

Fast-forward to 2026, and The Reign of Talon storyline is starting in Overwatch. Over the weekend, players got to try out Anran as part of Early Access and… well, they weren’t impressed with her look. Specifically, she now had more rounded features that made her look both younger and cuter than what we’ve seen before. The new design was so shocking that not only were fans vocally criticizing it (as they often do), but even Amran’s voice actor was making public comments about it.

Anran's voice actor, Fareeha Anderson, released a video on social media commenting on the new design, saying that the original animated short and comic featuring Anran made an “unspoken promise” to challenge traditional standards of beauty and that the new design broke that promise. “Overwatch is a trailblazer at challenging that, at trying to break those moulds, at trying to explore the bounds of what it means to be good, what it looks like to be heroic. And I think the result we got says something else – it says something that leaves a bad taste in our mouths. It’s not the bold, optimistic swing that we know Overwatch can make. And it’s a look that isn’t congruent with her personality; she looks like the younger sibling, she looks more docile, somehow, as the fire hero. She looks more docile than the most peacekeeping support in the game.”

Blizzard has heard the backlash and has already confirmed that they are going to be making some changes to Anran’s design. In a social media message posted earlier this week, Overwatch game director Aaron Keller said, “The team is currently discussing what it will take to make Anran look and feel more like the fierce older sister we all envision her to be. We’re so proud of the work that our team has put into Anran and the rest of the five heroes launching in [Overwatch] Season 1, and we agree that she can be even better if we get this aspect of her right in-game.”

However, don’t expect this change to come quickly. “We discussed sharing this with all of you last week,” Keller added. “But we wanted to wait until we had confirmation of exactly what we can do. We’re hoping to make this update in Season 1, but I don’t have specifics to share just yet. Our hero models are incredibly complicated, and we really need to test out what we can do.”

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