Dead Rising’s original voice actor confirms he’s not coming back to the role

A survival horror video game fan reached out to the original voice actor of zombie-survival adventure Dead Rising, to ask why Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, announced last week, was using a different voice instead of the first person to play photojournalist Frank West. After Capcom announced the 2006 classic would be updated for modern hardware, fans noticed, in the trailer shown last week, that the voice actor seemed to be different.

The simple answer is, well, Capcom didn’t contact Terence J. Rotolo to ask him back to the role. Which is a shame, considering Rotolo said one of the great, gravelly, grizzled lines in video gaming  — “I’ve covered wars, you know” — in the first Dead Rising, published in 2006. “Iconic” is an overused word in pop culture and marketing, but here, it might actually fit, considering how this has been referenced, if not turned into a meme.

But if Splinter Cell (Ubisoft) moved on from Michael Ironside as the voice of Sam Fisher, and Metal Gear (Konami) could part ways with David Hayter, then, yeah, it it stands to reason that Capcom might go in a different direction for the re-release of its genre-defining classic, 18 years after the original launched.

Got some news about the Dead Rising Remake. The reason why TJ Rotolo is not returning as Frank West's voice is simply because Capcom DID NOT contact him. It's probably because TJ is union and Capcom have a bias against anyone Union oriented. It's a shame. But what can we do. So… pic.twitter.com/1ztyGK4oK8

— FrankByDaylight (@FrankByDaylight) June 28, 2024

“FrankByDaylight” speculates that Capcom didn’t bring back Rotolo because he has a union card with SAG-AFTRA and that necessarily comes with a higher price tag, plus other conditions on contracted work.

Who’s to say. This is supposedly a remaster, not a remake, which makes the decision to switch voices for the lead actor a little unusual. But contracts and licenses can be stubborn things, even two decades later.

In any case, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster launches Sept. 19 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC via Steam, and Xbox Series X.\

Featured image via Steam

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