The Apex Legends team on making Catalyst "inescapably trans" and proud

gamesradar.com:

Catalyst, the newest Apex Legends character, is "inescapably trans" and the team at Respawn wouldn't have it any other way. The latest Legend was revealed in a Stories from the Outlands trailer that openly referenced her transition, making her the first transgender woman in the Apex games. Catalyst may be a trailblazer, but she joins an incredibly diverse roster that includes Bloodhound, who's non-binary, and a host of other queer-identifying characters like Valkyrie, Gibraltar, and Loba.

But Respawn didn't handle Catalyst's creation lightly. The team worked closely with transgender Respawn employees, a representative at "the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and Meli Grant, Catalyst's voice actor, who is herself a trans woman. I got a chance to sit down with lead writer Ashley Reed, Meli Grant, and associate director of gaming at GLAAD, Blair Durkee, to chat about Catalyst, representation, and the queer community's love of crystals. 

Respawn has been wanting to do this for a long time. "We have Bloodhound, who's a non-binary character, but we've been talking about adding another trans character to the roster for years, honestly," Reed says during our video chat. With Catalyst, the devs knew that she would be the one, but typical development delays and a desire to ensure they were handling it correctly meant the character kept getting pushed back. Eventually, Reed and the team hunkered down and said: "We just have to do it now." After that, work began on Catalyst's design.

A trans woman dev pointed out that Catalyst felt like a "techno witch," an identifier that was like a "lightning bolt that got the whole team excited." Reed explains that Catalyst's design team was constantly working with other