‘Destiny 2’ Features A Familiar Villain’s Voice In A Strange Place, But Not For Long

Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate is out now, starting the long-running game’s next multi-year cycle of expansions. But while players are diving into the new leg of the story it introduces, they’ve also noticed something very odd about one of its most important characters. Namely, the warlock Ikora Ray sounds an awful lot like villain Savathun. Developer Bungie says it’s working on changing that, but isn’t saying anything about the unannounced — and possibly quite obvious — reason for her recasting. Bungie did not immediately respond to Inverse’s request for comment.

As soon as players got their hands on The Edge of Fate, some noticed the similarity between new voice lines for Ikora Ray and the voice of Savathun, an antagonist in The Witch Queen expansion. It turns out that’s because Debra Wilson, the actor who plays Savathun, also stepped in to record the warlock’s new lines in the expansion. Ikora Ray isn’t the only character to have her voice replaced this way, but the fact that her stand-in was already a voice in the game made it all the more obvious.

While some players may have been surprised by the changes, Bungie actually announced that some voices would be changing in the expansion back in May, noting in a blog post that “some voice talent has been unavailable for recordings.”

The day of the expansion’s launch, Bungie wrote about the situation on social media, explaining that the change in voices is a temporary one, and work is underway to get the affected characters’ voice lines re-recorded by their original actors.

“Today, we are happy to announce that these conflicts have been resolved, and we’re actively re-recording lines for affected characters,” Bungie wrote. “While we do not have a specific date for when these lines will be updated, we are aiming for a future update.”

So it seems Gina Torres, the original voice of Ikora, will be returning at some point, but what’s missing from either the older update or the new social media post is any explanation for the change. While Bungie hasn’t responded to a request for comment, the timing of the announcement is hard to ignore. Back in May, the actor’s union SAG-AFTRA was still in the thick of negotiations with game studios over protections around AI-generated voices, and actors were striking as a result. During the strike, only studios that signed interim agreements with the union to enforce these protections were able to use union labor, and it seems that Bungie declined to do so.

But as of July 9, SAG-AFTRA has ratified a new agreement including protections around AI and other issues the union fought for, officially concluding the strike. Now that it’s over, union actors are free to take on new work or continue previous jobs, which is the most likely reason for Torres and other missing actors returning to Destiny 2.

Bungie isn’t the only developer to recast some of its characters during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse also made headlines for replacing actors in its more recent Zenless Zone Zero, after which two of the replaced actors spoke up on social media to make it clear that it was because of union negotiations. Emeri Chase (Soldier 11) and Nicholas Thurkettle (Lycaon) both said they wouldn’t work with the developer because it also failed to sign an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA during the strike.

With the strike now over, actors will be free to accept work from any studio. Along with replaced actors, there were fears of games being delayed during the, and while some delays may have already happened, developers are now free to proceed once actors can be found. And for Destiny 2 fans, the confusing mix of hero and villain in Ikora Ray’s temporary voice won’t last long.