Congratulations to Overwatch’s Zenyatta for being mentioned in an Oscar-nominated screenplay

Past lives was one of my favorite films of 2023. It’s a heartfelt, funny romantic drama; a nuanced portrayal of mature love; and a remarkable first feature from writer-director Celine Song, a playwright and dedicated gamer. For Past lives, Song previously featured a production of Anton Chekhov’s classic play The Seagull within a Sims game and plays regularly Valorant, Overwatch, And Fortnite.

Turns out The Sims isn’t the only video game franchise present in Song’s work: Overwatch makes a brief appearance in Past lives. The level of detail in the script surprised me. After meeting her high school sweetheart Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) for the first time in years, Nora (Greta Lee) returns home to find her husband Arthur (John Magaro) playing. Overwatch. Overwatch isn’t very relevant to the scene – it’s just the activity he does when she gets home, but the Oscar-nominated script is quite specific about who he plays and what happens in his game.

The Past lives The script specifies that Arthur is playing Zenyatta, and even adds some information about who Zenyatta is and what he stands for. It’s also a great character detail for Arthur, a sweet guy who would absolutely play a supporting character in a team game, and is relatively understanding about his high school sweetheart suddenly entering the picture.

The choice of who a character plays in a game Overwatch is an underutilized source of personality building in fiction. There’s a touch of comedy in there too: ‘DEFEAT’ appears in all caps immediately after Nora reveals that Hae Sung has indeed come to New York to see her, it’s great stuff. (And as one colleague quipped, “This is why no one wants to play support. There’s always the worry that your wife is going to leave you.”)

Song’s next project is the rom-com Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. Like it Past lives (And Challengerswritten by her husband, Justin Kuritzkes), it would focus on a love triangle. But I know what I’m most focused on: which video game will get an unexpected mention.