(Theory) I think hero 43 will be...
Maximilien. (Edit: Oh well, better luck next time)
[ID: An image of Maximilien from the shoulders up. His is an grey metal omnic wearing a fancy black suit. End ID]
Not only do I think Max is hero 43, I think he's bringing Archives back with him.
Max was recently teased to be hero 43 in The Pocket King storytime video on youtube (narrated by his voice actor), he is shown typing '43' on his holoscreen.
[ID: A close-up of the holoscreen numpad. In the first image the number '4' is lit up, in second the number '3' is lit up. End ID] [Credit to @/hazelet on bsky for pointing this out]
After chewing on this for a bit, I realized...
If he is hero 43, he would be released in season 16 (roughly mid April).
Archives historically started in early-mid April.
Max has a connection to Archives, being an important character in Storm Rising.
Overwatch hasn't had an Archives event in 3 years, Max's release is the perfect "excuse" to bring it back.
The community has always collectively assumed Max would be a support (if ever released), due to his characterization.
The devs said that they were planning on having 2 supports for every 1 tank and dps (until the roster levels out) for ow2. This was true for Lifeweaver and Illari, but not Juno. It felt a weird they gave up on this so quickly,, unless Maximilien was scheduled for a later release to line up with Archives
Voice actors are expensive, why put in the effort and resources bringing him back for (no offense) pretty middling content if they didn't have bigger things planned for him & his character?
The Pocket King short story, storytime video, and vault are examples of Max getting a comparatively substantial amount of attention in a short amount of time. This might be the devs laying the foundation for his release.
His animation in the video is new, I believe (knowing how expensive and time-consuming animation is) this scene came from a larger currently unreleased cinematic, for a trailer or new Archives gamemode (like, they could of teased this in any number of cheaper, easier ways). This might be supported by the fact the background is weirdly blurred? or has been removed (to hide spoilers). Like what's with this brown void?
[ID: A screenshot from the storytime video showing Maximilien, his holoscreen, and the title of the story ("The Pocket King"). The background is indistinct and brown. End ID]
Overwatch loves red herrings (Orisa released instead of Doomfist, Juno instead of Jiayi), but in this case Max is a real, established character (unlike Jiayi), and I don't think a switcheroo is likely, since he isn't associated with any other character who could take his place (like Orisa could with Doom).
And in my mind, they can't not bring back Archives, that's too much work and lore and gameplay to be locked in the overwatch vault forever. But bringing it back will inspire backlash, because overwatch players don't have object permanence /lh (i.e Archives is PVE and will remind the community of uhh,, broken promises...). So it's re-release has to be a party to distract from the mismanagement.
A new, already well-liked hero connected to Archives, (of which Max is literally the only option, every other featured character is in the game (Ram & SJ) or dead (Antonio)) and/or a new gamemode is basically required in order to curb negativity. This might be arrogant to say, but it would be wrong to not capitalize on this.
I'm pretty confident in this theory, but it's very possible my desperation for archives may be clouding my judgment lol
TLDR: We might be getting Archives back (!!) to coincide with Maximiliens release, who is likely to be a support.
