So, I was just playing Destiny 2 the other day, you know, doing my usual stuff, shooting aliens and all that. And then this thought just popped into my head – who actually voices these characters? Some of ’em, their voices are so distinct, you feel like you’ve heard them somewhere before.
I figured, why not look it up? So, I started digging around a bit. My first search was for the Guardian voices, the player characters. It’s kinda funny, you don’t think about it much when you’re playing.
Turns out, for the Exo Guardians, the female voice is done by Cree Summer. And the male Exo? That’s Peter Jessop. Okay, cool, first mystery solved. Then I checked the Human Guardians. The female Human is voiced by Susan Eisenberg, and Matthew Mercer does the male Human. Mercer’s a big name, so that one wasn’t a total shocker, but still neat to know.
Then I got curious about Cayde-6. Man, I always loved Cayde’s lines. I had a feeling I knew who it was. Nathan Fillion, right? And yup, he voiced Cayde for most of his appearances. But here’s where it got interesting for me. For Cayde’s, uh, big exit in Forsaken, it was actually Nolan North who stepped in for that final appearance. I was like, “Wait, what?” And then, get this, for The Final Shape, the big finale for the Light & Darkness story, they brought Nathan Fillion back! That was a pretty cool move, I thought.
Next up, I had to know about Lord Shaxx. The guy’s always so hyped up in the Crucible. Lennie James! When I saw that, I was like, “No way, Morgan from The Walking Dead?” That’s him! He’s been in a bunch of other things too, but that’s where I immediately recognized the name from. It just clicked.
And then there’s Commander Zavala. This one… well, everyone knows Lance Reddick voiced Zavala. Such an iconic voice, and he was perfect for the role. It was really sad, you know, when he passed away. It made me wonder what Bungie would do. They later announced that Keith David would be the new voice for Zavala, starting with The Final Shape expansion this year, 2024. Keith David’s got a legendary voice too, so I think he’ll do a great job, even though it’s under such sad circumstances. It’s a big role to fill.
It’s just one of those things, you start looking into one small detail and then you go down this little rabbit hole. You hear these voices for hundreds of hours, and then putting a name, or another role you know, to them is kinda fascinating. Just something I found myself spending a bit of time on, and I thought the way they handled some of these voice actor changes and original castings was pretty interesting to uncover piece by piece.
