By now, you can’t have missed that Apex Legends is poised to embark on its 12th season of content, known as Defiance, next Tuesday, 8th February. Developer Respawn and publisher EA have been promoting the game ceaselessly in recent weeks, gradually unveiling a new limited-time 9v9 mode, as well big changes for the game’s Olympus map, and, of course, a mouthy new hero in the form of Mad Maggie.
It’s Maggie that took the spotlight in a recent developer session for press, with Respawn keen to dive more deeply into the character – as well as her abilities – before her official arrival next week. But while her playable debut is near, Maggie has, of course, been in orbit around Apex Legends for quite some time, having first made her mark as a supporting character in Fuse’s introductory cinematic back in January last year.
As Respawn explains it, Maggie wasn’t always intended make the leap from supporting character to fully fledged Legend. Instead, the developer originally envisaged its next hero as something close to a Polish winged hussar – a mounted solider replete with elaborate plumage. That initial design concept was paired with the desire to build a new Breacher character – a kind of a one-woman SWAT team – that could “really take [on] some of the defensive Legends and their abilities, to kind of lock down a building and really bust in there”.
This early aggression-focused concept was fleshed out to include abilities like riot shield, a flash bang, and even a shotgun leg attachment that could be used to blast doors down in one kick. Following Season 8’s reveal though, and the positive response to Maggie, Respawn began to realise the character’s aggressive demeanour “really mapped well” onto its Breacher gameplay.