Who could be Apex Legends’ next playable character?

Apex Legends’ season 15 is halfway to a close. The game’s last character, Catalyst, brought ferrofluid and new ways to barricade doors to the Apex Games when she hit live servers on Aug. 9. With season 16 kicking off in just a couple of months, new datamined information has given fans a glimpse at who’s joining the bloodsport next.

It’s tough not to speculate on who could be joining the Apex Games after Catalyst. With Apex’s ever-growing lore universe, there are quite a few possibilities, including characters who have already been introduced in the game’s extensive backstory. For instance, Mad Maggie has been a part of the lore surrounding the Apex Games since season eight. Back then, she was introduced as the best frenemy of the outlaw Walter “Fuse” Fitzroy, and the game showcased their toxic dynamic to great effect.

Whoever the next legend is, it’s possible, if not likely, Apex fans already know them in some capacity, and that they have some kind of relationship with one of the current legends.

Here are three possible legends who may be joining the game next season.

3. Ballistic

Another Apex season, another round of juicy leaks. Ballistic is the latest character to have hit Apex fans’ radars after a leak surfaced on social media, and he already has players thinking he’ll be overpowered.

Related: Titanfall’s biggest staples may make its way to Apex, leaks say

With a passive that lets him carry a third weapon, an ultimate that increases teammates’ reload and movement speeds, and a tactical that overheats enemies’ guns, Ballistic seems like a fairly strong pick. He was originally part of the massive leak from March 2022 that featured nine new characters, including Newcastle, Vantage, and Catalyst—three legends who were later confirmed and added to the game.

We don’t know much about who Ballistic is at the moment outside of his epithet, the “Apex Arms Dealer.” Fans will have to keep their eyes peeled on Apex’s Stories from the Outlands series to learn more about this mysterious man closer to season 15’s end.

2. Xenia Contreras

Vantage has made her debut in the Apex Games, but she’s not in it for glory. She’s here to rescue her mother, Xenia Contreras, from prison and prove to the world she was wrongfully convicted. But could Xenia later join the Games herself?

There’s an old joke in the Apex community: If a character has more than a handful of voice lines, it’s likely they’ll become a playable legend in the battle royale in a later season. Mad Maggie, Jackson (Newcastle), Dr. Ashleigh Reid (Ash)—all three played a role in other legends’ Stories from the Outlands before joining the Apex Games themselves, and they all had large speaking roles prior to their arrivals.

Considering how many lines Xenia had in both Vantage’s Stories from the Outlands episode, “Survive,” and the Hunted launch trailer, she could be well on her way toward one of the Games’ many arenas. She wouldn’t be the first prisoner sentenced to death via bloodsport, after all. Throughout the season’s launch trailer, viewers can see there’s more to Xenia than meets the eye, and it’s implied Xenia starts a prison riot with a knife Vantage sneaks in. This side story could end with Vantage’s mom escaping prison through the Apex Games, being sentenced to death by bloodsport for causing a riot, or some other unseen means.

Xenia may be Vantage’s mother, but Respawn is no stranger to having friends and family fight each other to the death in its bloodsport (think Newcastle and Bangalore, and Loba and Valkyrie). Fans will have to wait for future seasons to confirm what happens to Xenia and Vantage’s storyline, but don’t be surprised if you see a familiar face later join the Games.

1. Blisk

In August 2019, renowned Apex data miner The Gaming Merchant unearthed files from the game’s code pointing to a character named Blisk. This mysterious man is referred to in the files as “Elite Mercenary,” and the code included a set of potential abilities for the character.

But this wasn’t the first time Apex fans have heard that name. Kuben Blisk is a Pilot in the Titanfall franchise and served as a ranking commander for the IMC. He’s also one of the Syndicate’s top mercenaries and the man who created the Apex Games.

Blisk visits Rampart at her shop in a Stories from the Outlands episode and invites her to participate in the games. Rampart also spray-painted Blisk’s face in World’s Edge in the days leading up to season six’s release. Blisk also hired Valkyrie to dig up her dad’s old Titan, and the pair later stood at opposite ends of a pistol in the “Northstar” Stories from the Outlands episode.

Almost three years after information about the possibility of Blisk’s arrival at the Games was first revealed, Apex players are still waiting for the gruff mercenary. But not all is lost. Hints of Blisk keep trickling in, like when savvy fans noticed that in a trailer for Apex Legends Mobile, Blisk is shown wearing the jump-jets that come standard issue in the Games. Now that he seems to have the right gear for it, Blisk’s entrance seems inevitable. The question is, when?