Lucheng Interstellar established the Horizon Lunar Colony as a first step for humanity’s renewed exploration of space. Among its residents was a group of genetically enhanced animals that were intended to test the effects of prolonged habitation in space.

One gorilla displayed such rapid brain development from the gene therapy that he was taken under the wing of Dr. Harold Winston, who taught him science and inspired him with tales of human ingenuity. The young gorilla passed his days assisting with the scientists’ experiments, watching the distant blue world outside his habitat window, and dreaming of the endless possibilities that awaited him there.

But his life was thrown into chaos when the other gorillas led an uprising, killed the mission scientists, and claimed the colony for their own. Taking on the name of his beloved human caretaker, Winston built a makeshift rocket and escaped the base. Unbeknownst to him, Specimen 8—a hamster Winston had befriended named Hammond—had hitched a ride to Earth with him. While Hammond landed in Australia and settled among the Junkers, Winston found a new home with Overwatch, an organization that represented everything he had come to admire about humanity. Winston was finally able to live up to the heroic ideal that had been instilled in him.

At Overwatch, Winston developed the chronal accelerator technology that anchored Tracer to the present. He, Tracer, and Genji graduated from agent training together and, together, assisted in apprehending first Maximilien and then the leader of Talon himself, Doomfist. When Overwatch fell, Winston was distraught and went into seclusion, longing for the golden days of heroism to return.

He would soon transform this longing into action. After the Reaper infiltrated Watchpoint: Gibraltar seeking the roster of former Overwatch agents, Winston repelled the Talon operative and sent out a global recall order for the agents of Overwatch to return to duty. Tracer was the first to respond, and he joined her in King’s Row, where the two successfully took out a suspected Null Sector agent and repaired the Grid, critical infrastructure to the omnics there.

Inspired by their success in London, Winston remained hopeful that other ex-Overwatch agents would respond to his recall. He and Tracer embarked on a series of missions while they awaited their former comrades, even thwarting Widowmaker and Reaper in a high-profile attack on the Overwatch Museum in New York. But over a year from the recall, only Mei had joined them at Watchpoint: Gibraltar. When Winston intercepted news of the Null Sector attack in Paris, he realized it was likely to be Overwatch’s final battle. But Winston’s patience and faith were not in vain, as Genji, Mercy, Echo, Brigitte, and Reinhardt joined the fight.

As more former Overwatch agents (and new blood) step forward to answer the call, Winston remains the steadfast beacon of a future worth fighting for.