In the meantime I would like to express a thought. After the DOTA case, Heroes of the storm was defined as Blizzard’s regret for being so foolish to miss the opportunity to be the first to give birth to the MOBA genre. And you know what? Even Overwatch has this kind of regret: being the first to make a successful animated series based on its video game. Everyone today sees Arcane from League of Legends, and since then it has been used as a video game example of when a franchise tries to revive its interest with an animated series (see Cyberpunk). About Overwatch… we’ve been saying since 2016 that it had to be developed as an animated series. even since the times of Sombra or Doomfist, with their origin stories. and it never did. It is, in effect, a missed opportunity, unfortunately. 
I’d like to be brutally honest, just because I love the lore of Overwatch and I know it has continued with its lore through great books and stories and new heroes: how is the story of the game perceived by a “non-fan” of the game? I mean, try asking a non-Overwatch player what they know about this franchise, and they are probably still left with the news that this game has no story, that it was canceled, that they released an unfinished PVE mode. If this person then sees an animated series, it will definitely end up in two things:
- it is desperate to bring back attention;
- it is imitating Arcane, just like Cyberpunk did;
this is to say that in my opinion the only way to really re-attract attention to the lore… is to develop a new alternative to PVE, to act precisely around the problem that there was with the replayability of the story of… we will take starcraft 2 as an example. but I fear I am derailing the discussion onto other horizons, so I’m getting back on topic.
We needs a movie?
a movie… I would completely exclude it. it is a very dangerous cost, and often the storyboard time is the worst flaw. And if I have to be honest, the last time we saw Tracer as the protagonist of a series (london calling) it was poorly managed, I didn’t like it at all in the last volume where her useless martyrdom covered all the plots that had to be closed around Iggy, Kace, the underworld, etc. I remember that she had earned a lot of antipathy as “Mary Sue”. but it is almost inevitable that we would have her as a “protagonist”.
another problem is that developers could fear consolidating “too many” details in the lore, sanctioning plot holes if they want to add new characters in the future. it already happened with kiriko in some points. the worst flaw of the movies? it is a product that fails because it is intended for a fandom that already knows overwatch and the basics of its lore. it is impossible to explain the point of the lore to someone who does not know Overwatch during the course of a movie, just as it would tend to annoy the fan for having occupied the time with explanations that he has already had elsewhere over the years.
oh, and of course the worst format of all would be a cast of real actors aor heavy realistic style. no matter how good the CGI, costume adaptations in a real dimension or even just a different art style than cinematics would be catastrophic. Warcraft has had this kind of experience.
and for an animated series?
this is an option that I like more, but it must be something highly functional to the narrative freedom of Overwatch, as already explained before. and you know what? I think I know what they could be talking about:
OVERWATCH CARTOONS
they are mentioned several times in the lore of Efi oladele and in the book declassified: an animated series dedicated to the golden age Overwatch (tracer, mercy, winston, sojourn etc.) in missions that are not entirely canonical, but still sanctioning the success of the iconic heroes of the series. obviously its flaw could concern the non-representation of the villains of Overwatch (widowmaker, reaper, etc.) but… it would be a GREAT product that makes us impersonate those who knew the glorious overwatch in the game, like efi, or timmy (the child of the cinematic exhibit) and all in a dimension not necessarily canonical of all the details of the lore (talon, the fall of overwatch, the invasion of the null sector", etc.
there could be a lot of narrative liberties, like the hiring of Overwatch agents that we will see in game (including Emre). we could have many missions around the world without a restrictive logic of the world situation (like paris destroyed by the null sector today), and it could give a lot of liberties to the idea of heroism of overwatch without necessarily considering the total canonicity of the info as often happens (it is still “the cartoon that is inspired by the real overwatch”).
the only flaw is that this could also be a series too dedicated to fans, but it would still be a much more simplified narrative point for those who do not know overwatch, and it would give a better sense to the “2” that is in the game today, on the fact that that in game is the future after the overwatch of the series (the golden age).
obviously I speak as a big fan of the lore: in my opinion it is the only point they can rely on to propose an animated series simple enough for those who do not know the lore of Overwatch (like the ending) but at the same time not too canonical in the details, but satisfying for the fans.
especially with a movie. we are often fascinated by the movies that make a video game successful, but we must never forget the MANY movies based on a series that have failed miserably to the point that we forget about them.