Apex Legends’ Newcastle is a “cool dad” with a complex past

pcgamesn.com:

The Apex Legends Season 13 release date is just around the corner, and while we’ve already gotten a pretty good idea of what incoming legend Newcastle is capable of in combat, developer Respawn has now pulled back the curtain to reveal more about the battle royale game’s new support hero, who has led a bit of a double life.

EA confirmed leaked rumours that Newcastle is Bangalore’s long-lost brother Jackson, a former IMC pilot who was shot down and presumed dead. Since then, Jackson has hidden his identity, starting a new life and a family in a quiet town called Harris Valley. The thing is, Jackson isn’t the real Newcastle – he’s assumed the mantle of Harris Valley’s hometown hero after a fateful night in which Jackson discovered some shady loan sharks roughing up the real Newcastle, who never could quite make it into the games as a true legend.

Newcastle’s design reflects his layered past – there’s the knight-style armour to reflect his gallant role as the defender of his hometown, explains Cristina Ferez, a lead concept artist at Respawn. “We wanted to lean heavily into the superhero aspects, but as the process started, we started doing some sketches with some more medieval references, and we wanted to keep some of those there.”

“As you’ve seen in the lore trailer, [Jackson] went ahead and started a whole new family under the guise of someone else,” says Ify Nwadiwe, a comedian and TV writer who Respawn brought onboard to craft Newcastle’s backstory. “On top of that, he’s also pretending to be Newcastle – so there’s just so many layers to peel back and dig into.”

Part of the fun, Nwadiwe says, was getting to write a ‘cool dad’ character.

“He’s someone who feels authentically like a dad, someone who has some more stakes,