Apex Legends formally unveils robot hitman Revenant as Season 4's new hero
So long, Jimmie "Forge" McCormick.
It's been a bit of a wild ride for Apex Legends fans over the last few weeks, given developer Respawn Entertainment's rather cheeky bait-and-switch regarding the identity of its next new hero. The games are over, however, and robot hitman Revenant has now been formally unveiled as Apex Legends' latest playable character.
Fans have long suspected Revenant to be the star of Apex Legends' fourth season, of course, given the proliferation of leaks and official teases surrounding the character, leading all the way back into last year. It came as something of a surprise, then, when Respawn finally revealed Season 4's new Legend to be pro-brawler Jimmie "Forge" McCormick - and that surprise amplified when the developer seemingly killed him off earlier this week.
But now it's all official: Forge is dead and his murderer, Revenant, is Season's 4's new star. Revenant gets a juicy cinematic reveal in Apex Legends' new animated trailer below, which shows the character - described as "the greatest Hitman the Syndicate ever had" - causing bloody mayhem as he fulfils a contract to eliminate conman and thief for hire Marcos Andrade.
From the various scraps of information teased on the official Apex Legends Twitter page over the last few days, this incident appears to have occurred 25 years in the past, and seems to show the moment when Revenant first discovers his true nature - not a man but a machine built buy Hammond Robotics - after his programming fails.
Back in the present, "Hammond Robotics' return to the Outlands has renewed his thirst for vengeance," explains Respawn, "and he won't stop until they're all dead."
Meanwhile, over on the official Apex Legends website, deceased hero Forge's prominent placement has now made way for Revenant, with his brief introductory bio reading, "Consumed by hate and obsessed with revenge, Revenant uses unnatural abilities to haunt his enemies and defy death." Presumably Respawn will details these new abilities more fully in the lead up to Season 4's Xbox One, PS4, and PC launch on 4th February.
One other interesting point to note is that Apex Legends' latest trailer might, assuming I'm not reading too much into things, serve a bit of a dual purpose. That lingering glare of pure hatred from Andrade's young daughter at the very end certainly seems significant.
Could we be looking at an origin story for a future Apex Legends hero? Certainly, last year's leaks pointed to a third new character alongside Revenant and Forge known variously as Loba/Rosie. Perhaps this 25-year-old incident is where her Apex Legends trajectory begins?