| “ | Someone needs to fill this saddle. | „ |
| ~ Cassidy in Overwatch 2. |
| “ | Justice ain't gonna dispense itself. | „ |
| ~ McCree in Overwatch 1. |
| “ | It's High Noon! | „ |
| ~ Cassidy when he uses Deadeye; his most famous quote. |
Cole Cassidy, formerly known as Jesse McCree, is one of the main protagonists of the Overwatch franchise.
He is an American cowboy who was once a member of the Deadlock Gang, and is currently a member of Overwatch trying to make amends for his past.
He is voiced by Matthew Mercer, who also voices Levi Ackerman from Attack on Titan, Chrom from Fire Emblem, Jotaro Kujo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Sinbad from Magi, Kiritsugu Emiya from Fate, Aikurō Mikisugi from Kill la Kill, and Yamato from Naruto: Shippuden, and Yusuke Kitagawa from Persona 5.
Story
Cassidy was originally a member of the Deadlock Gang. In an Overwatch sting operation at Route 66, Cassidy was captured alongside several other gang members. Overwatch was impressed with his skills and gave him the option of becoming a member of Blackwatch rather than going to prison. He accepted, and began to serve with training from Gabriel Reyes.
When Overwatch began to decline and Blackwatch's rebellion was beginning, Cassidy opted to leave Overwatch and cut off all contact with its members. He resurfaced after its collapse as a mercenary.
At some point, Cassidy stopped a robbery at the Rikimaru in Hanamura.
In "Train Hopper", Cassidy secretly boarded a hypertrain from the American west to Houston. When Talon agents attempted to hijack the train, Cassidy dispatched them, leaving behind the object they were looking for. The news reports blamed Cassidy for the raid, but he was not caught. At the time of the Overwatch Recall, Cassidy was in the American Midwest, near Indiana or Kentucky.
Cassidy holds his ground against Ashe and the Deadlock Gang.
In "Reunion", Cassidy is on Route 66, eating some apple pie, when an explosive train robbery alerts him to settle the score with his former crew, the Deadlock Gang. Cassidy reunites with Ashe, and asks for a package on the Gang's payload. Now that Cassidy mentions it, Ashe refuses to give it up, and a showdown occurs at high noon. Cassidy quickly dispatches his 6 enemies, hides behind a rock, and throws plundered grenades up into the air. He fans the hammer with incredible precision and detonates all the grenades above their heads, and ties up Ashe. He activates the mysterious package to activate the female AI Echo, telling her that Winston has called for the band to get back together. Cassidy drives off in Ashe's motorcycle, succeeding in his mission.
Personality
Cassidy is a calm man, rarely showing intense emotions with an element of carefreeness. Although he was once an outlaw, Cassidy is always looking to do the right thing, trying to atone for his past. He often acts polite and respectful towards both his team and strangers but can be cocky at times. He is also appreciative of weapons and prefers for them to be treated with care, as verified by his dialogue with Reaper. Additionally, he seems to be pretty charming, evidenced by his brief conversation with Ana before a match starts.
Fancying himself as a justice bringing cowboy and having an appearance to match, Cassidy usually makes multiple references to Western films and culture, as shown by his voice lines and quotes during battle. He also seems to joke about himself being wanted dead by multiple groups, according to his reaction to seeing his picture on a dartboard in Route 66.
Abilities
Using his Peacekeeper, Cassidy takes out targets with dead-eye precision and can perform a combat roll to dive out of danger, and instantly reload his weapon in the process. Anyone who gets too close will be Strucker by his magnetic grenade. He can run and gun, as well as stand in place and shoot everyone in his sights in the blink of an eye. He is also a battle genius, as shown in his showdown with the entire Deadlock Gang, where he shoots surfaces in the environment to trigger certain events, and brings down a rockslide to take cover from Ashe's fire. While not in his arsenal (at least not in-game), Cassidy can utilize grenades and other explosives to his advantage, to either blind his opponents or incapacitate them, without waiting for them to detonate-- he can even shoot them before they even land.
As a gun for hire famous for his meritorious skill, parties big and small seek his mercenarism. However, he only fights for causes that he believes are just. Cassidy enjoys serving justice with his own two hands. One of his arms is robotic, it is unknown what happened to him. It is also unknown if it boosts his performance in any way, since he shoots with his right, human arm.
In gameplay, his Peacekeeper revolver contains 6 rounds per clip, and it takes 1-2 seconds to reload. His primary fire shoots a heavy bullet that deals 35-70 damage, which can headshot. Alternatively, he can Fan the Hammer to release all of his bullets in less than a second to pump close range enemies full of lead, dealing up to 300 points of damage, enough to instantly kill most heroes. By using Combat Roll, this split second movement ability instantly reloads his gun, and he can then potentially do a double fan-the hammer.
His Magnetic Grenade is a close range projectile that hinders and destroy enemies. His ultimate ability is Deadeye, which has an insane range of 200 meters for him to quickly deal severe damage to all enemies in sight, with a high chance of killing. Cassidy will always targets from left to right.
Gallery
Images
Trivia
- When naming Cassidy, the developers made lists of first and last names to find the best cowboy name, but none of them felt quite right. Someone suggested the name of one of Blizzard's own developers, Jesse McCree, and it came out on top in the end. The real Jesse McCree had to sign his name away for Team 4 to use it. McCree commented in 2019 that "my parents were big Overwatch fans." However, in 2021, Jesse McCree was fired due to the California lawsuit against Activision Blizzard involving a culture of sexual harassment in the company. In response to this, it was stated in August that McCree would be renamed to something else in the future. New Blood, originally planned for September, was delayed, and was instead implemented in late 2021. To fill in the gap, a new map was released to the PTR. In October, it was announced that McCree had been renamed to "Cole Cassidy." The name change was made permanent on October 26, 2021.
- In wake of the Blizzard sex scandals in 2021, casters in Overwatch tournaments refused to say McCree's name due to the real Jesse McCree being a suspect of the scandal and consequentially leaving Blizzard, and fans requested the character to be renamed, which led to him being renamed Cole Cassidy.
 Heroes
| ||
|
Overwatch Former Members M.E.K.A. M.E.K.A Squad Others Yōkai Vishkar Corporation The Crusaders Shambali Others Junkenstein's Revenge | ||