Resident Evil Voice Actors Won’t Be Returning For Resident Evil 2 Remake

If you’ve got some nostalgic attachments to some of the Resident Evil voice actors from the previous games and are hoping to see them in the Resident Evil 2 Remake, you might be a bit disappointed. Previous talents who voiced Claire Redfield, Ada Wong, and Leon Kennedy in games prior to the upcoming remake won’t be returning to reprise their roles.

Alyson Court, the voice actor who voiced Claire Redfield in the original 1998 version of Resident Evil 2, confirmed in a video that she published on YouTube that she wouldn’t be returning for the remake. Court said in her video that she definitely would’ve taken up the role of Claire Redfield once again for the remake, but that Capcom has decided to go with using non-union voice actors this time. Fans of Court’s version of Claire were quickly upset by the news, and a petition to have her brought back has already been created.

But the letdowns don’t end there, as Ada Wong voice actor Courtenay Taylor also won’t be returning to voice her character. She wasn’t the original voice of Ada in Resident Evil 2, but she did voice the character in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Resident Evil 6, and Resident Evil: Damnation.

Lastly, one of the most iconic characters in the Resident Evil series, Leon S. Kennedy, won’t be voiced by Matt Mercer. Mercer confirmed the news after a fan posed a question regarding why he wasn’t recast as Leon and asked if it was related to the circumstances that Court was experiencing. He replied that he was indeed having a similar experience as Court regarding why Capcom might not have cast him again. Mercer is a particularly well-known name in the video game industry having voiced Leon in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 and Resident Evil 6 as well as his performance in games such as Titanfall 2, Overwatch, and his work in the anime series Attack On Titan.

So what does this mean as far as who will be taking over the roles? The replacements for the cast have not yet been named, but it’s likely that the voice actors will be new to the Resident Evil franchise.

Seeing how much of the hype around the game is based on nostalgia, not having previous voice actors may be a deterrent from fans who were looking forward to the remake. The Resident Evil 2 remake doesn’t yet have a release date at this time, but the first version was released in January of 1998, so a 20th-anniversary release doesn’t seem out of the question.

[via GameRant]