Casting for future movies: Celebrities or Voice Actors?

[Johnny Boy]

So since we have a whole film franchise ahead of us, I’ve really been speculating on who could play the other characters on the film side of things, especially in the wake of Idris Elba being cast as Knuckles. So for future films would you rather characters be voiced by celebrities or by their voice actors in the games like Tails? And if you want celebrities who would you want to play a certain character? I’d personally think that Adam Driver would make a great Shadow.

[Silvereyes]

Depends on the size of the role. While Tails is in Sonic Movie 2, Knuckles is getting the hype and marketing behind him, so it makes sense for him to get a celebrity voice actor while less "importance" is put on Tails. If the speculation that Sonic Movie 3 will have Shadow as the big guest character, I think it has to be a celebrity voice actor.

The Knuckles TV show will be interesting because assuming that show introduces other Sonic characters, I'm not sure what they'd go with. Either video game voices or I imagine more celebrity voices that are B-tier, some more subtle picks that probably don't cost as much as someone like Idris Elba.

To be honest, I can't say I'm that bothered. The Sonic Movie-verse is always going to be substantially different from the games or other TV shows, even if they decide to have it mirror the games in terms of plot points or references. To be honest, perhaps controversially, I'm not that bothered by Tails being voiced by his game VA, I wouldn't of minded if they did get someone new for the role. I'm more impressed by the gesture than anything else, that the people behind the movies seem to actually care about the source material and want to do good.

I also can't help but think some Sonic characters have more iconic voices that others. I can't imagine Vector or Charmy or Tails actually sounding *too* difference from their usual voices. Some though I feel like are just easier to work with. I love Blaze but I think most women could easily voice her. I actually think Amy's VA should be one that compliments Ben Schwartz, I think there needs to be chemistry there. I'd probably choose an anime VA for Silver considering how much it feels like his character is routed in that sortof direction, being young, dorky, but also heroic when needed. Not sure who'd make a good celebrity choice that fits that mold.

I don't know at the end of the day. I am curious to see how this franchise grows. Would be funny to see clickbait articles for Sonic like we see for the MCU about "10 celebrities who could play Tangle the Lemur" or those video channels that explain MCU easter eggs and end credits scenes, only for obscure Sonic facts and characters.

[Johnny Boy]

Yeah I think certain characters will get celebrity voice actors depending on how much “star power” the studio thinks that they have. Shadow is the most popular character in the franchise after Sonic himself so there’s no doubt in my mind they’ll get a celebrity to play him. They’ll probably get a celebrity for Rouge and Silver too. Amy could go either way tbh.

[Piko]

In a perfect world, everyone would be voiced by their voice actors in the games. But we all know that Hollywood turns its nose up at voice actors in favour of celebrities because they’re way more marketable.

I personally don’t mind either way. However, if Paramount decides to go down the celebrity route, I hope that whoever they hire have what it takes to do voice acting and aren’t just there for the check.

[Johnny Boy]

2 hours ago, Piko said:

In a perfect world, everyone would be voiced by their voice actors in the games. But we all know that Hollywood turns its nose up at voice actors in favour of celebrities because they’re way more marketable.

I personally don’t mind either way. However, if Paramount decides to go down the celebrity route, I hope that whoever they hire have what it takes to do voice acting and aren’t just there for the check.

I think certain characters will retain their game VA’s due to the nature of their voices such as Omega or Charmy. Everyone else could go either way (ex: Amy or Blaze) or will no doubt have a celebrity voice actor (ex: Shadow).

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Ideally VAs, but mainly for budgeting reasons.

Celebrities are in positions where they can charge a lot for their performance to the point it can break the budget. Mind you, this is just my observation, and they may just be interested in it for more than just money and might not always charge millions…

But that makes it all the more ideal (to me) to go with VAs much for the same reasons. It’s still work, and actors should be paid, but celebrities come with a bit more to them than their voice—which is a double edged sword, because their name helps promote a series even more to rake in more bucks.

To be frank, I’m more avoidant of “celebrity worship syndrome” as I like to call it in a work to boost visibility. I don’t know, just a small personal bias, as all in all it really doesn’t matter as long as whoever’s acting sells me on the character they’re portraying.

[G-Force]

I'm never not going to choose voice actors.

It honestly kinda pisses me off that there is an entire community of people who build their entire careers on voice acting (a community we rely on very heavily as gamers, by the way), and yet every time a studio creates a new high profile voice acting gig (like, say, Knuckles in the new Sonic movie) they immediately hand them over to established regular actors who already have more than enough recognition.

I don't hate Idris Knuckles, and I have no intention of shitting on him or anything, it's just that there's always gonna be a part of me that wishes a dedicated voice actor could have benefited from that spotlight.

[Johnny Boy]

On 3/3/2022 at 4:30 PM, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Ideally VAs, but mainly for budgeting reasons.

Celebrities are in positions where they can charge a lot for their performance to the point it can break the budget. Mind you, this is just my observation, and they may just be interested in it for more than just money and might not always charge millions…

But that makes it all the more ideal (to me) to go with VAs much for the same reasons. It’s still work, and actors should be paid, but celebrities come with a bit more to them than their voice—which is a double edged sword, because their name helps promote a series even more to rake in more bucks.

To be frank, I’m more avoidant of “celebrity worship syndrome” as I like to call it in a work to boost visibility. I don’t know, just a small personal bias, as all in all it really doesn’t matter as long as whoever’s acting sells me on the character they’re portraying.

When you put it like that, maybe a majority of the characters keeping their game VA’s would be a realistic outcome.  Though I still think they’d get celebrities for characters that the studio feels might have a lot of “star power” like Shadow. Or characters that have never had a voice actor before like Starline or Nack if they decide to adapt them.

[VO.SUPER]

I'm always for VAs over celebs. But I dont have many hopes with Hollywood. Colleen was a nice surprise for me. 

[SonicBlastAwesome]

I think Amy will be voiced by Athena Karkanis, she did good job acting like Manifest, Saw films, Survival of the Dead, The Barrens, Almost Heroes, Lost Girl, AMC drama series Low Winter Sun, as animated TV series, Wild Kratts, Total Drama Revenge of the Island, Skyland, and MetaJets. I think Athena could be best choice to voice Amy in third Sonic movie if Sega and Paramount wants her to voice Amy.