Overwatch fan reimagines Winston’s Lunar skin and it’s better than the original

Overwatch’s Wukong Winston skin has become a Lunar New Year favorite, but one fan has taken it to a whole new level by redesigning it. 

While Overwatch’s upcoming Winter Wonderland event is set to round off 2021 in style, players are already looking forward to starting 2022 off with a bang with the Lunar New Year celebration.

Dropping at the end of January in tandem with the Chinese New Year, players are always on the edge of their seats to see which hero will be receiving a stunning new skin.

Lovable tank and Overwatch commander, Winston, already has a couple of Lunar skins, including the iconic Wukong skin. However, one fan has redesigned it to better echo the myth that it’s inspired by, and this version looks better than the current in-game one.

Overwatch fan redesigns Wukong Winston skin

Inspired by the Chinese story of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King who features in the 16th Century text, Journey to the West, u/DrLove77 has reimagined lovable iconic gorilla as a fearsome orangutan.

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While Wukong has always been portrayed simply as some form of monkey, due to the abundance of orangutans in South East Asia, he more than likely would have been one of these particular primates. Winston, of course, is a gorilla, which is a species native to Africa.

Choosing to swap out the Overwatch icon’s gun-metal grey fur for a blazing orange coat instead, it turns out this idea has been a hit with the game’s community.

One fan notes that the species swap almost turns him into an “alternate reality Winston,” who’s more interested in causing mischief (just like his namesake) than saving the planet from the Omnics.

“Based on actual intelligence, it would make more sense for an ape as smart as Winston to be an orangutan and not a gorilla,” writes another, referring to the idea that the orangutan is the cleverest of all primates.

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A final comment notes that it would be even more interesting to “give him a unique voiceline with the skin that says ‘I colored my hair for this moment’ or something.”

DrLove77’s redesign has clearly captured the imaginations of the title’s loyal fanbase, so it’ll be interesting to see if Blizzard adapt the current design to fit in with the legends a little bit more. Maybe we’ll see Wukong Winston get a glow up coming into Overwatch 2 – only time will tell.