Ever since the first game’s original launch, one of the cast members in the expansive hero roster of Overwatch is a cowboy who used to go by the name Jesse McCree or just McCree. However, near the end of the first game’s life, his name was changed to Cole Cassidy, referenced by just his last name again. Here is what you should call him and what you need to know about that whole situation.
Is Jesse McCree or Cole Cassidy the name of the cowboy in Overwatch 2?
Cold Cassidy is the official name for the Damage character in Overwatch 2, carrying over from the name change made in Overwatch 1. You may think that randomly changing a character’s name is a bit odd, but there is some circumstance around the situation. His original name, Jesse McCree, was named after a former Blizzard developer by the same name. He was fired from the company in 2021 amid rampant cases and accusations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Given that Overwatch’s whole message is inclusivity and working together, it made sense to change the character’s name.
While the circumstances surrounding Cassidy called for a name change, it appears that the character had already been using a fake name in the game’s lore. When Sombra was added to the roster in late 2016, an interaction between her and Cassidy hinted that his real name was Cole all along. In that conversation, he does not mention Cassidy but clearly states, “I don’t know what you heard, but my name is not Cole.”
Speaking speculatively, we don’t think Blizzard was always planning to change the name Jesse McCree to Cole Cassidy. Instead, they had written that interaction as a nice little bit of lore for the character and got lucky that that situation allowed them to come up with a new name easily after the scandal broke out. Regardless of their intentions, the character’s name is officially Cole Cassidy.
