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Lego Horizon recasts Sylens, previously played by the late Lance Reddick

Draugoth

Gold Member
horizon-lance-reddick-1440x806.jpg
In a statement provided to IGN, Sony studio Guerrilla said a new actor has taken on the role for the upcoming Lego spin-off.

“Lance Reddick tragically passed away in 2023, and he is deeply missed within Guerrilla and our community,” said senior world artist Lucas Bolt. “He wonderfully portrayed the essential character of Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. The character of Sylens does appear in Lego Horizon Adventures, and we will introduce the new actor at a later date.

“Hearing the voices of other original actors including Ashly Burch as Aloy, JB Blanc as Rost, John Macmillan as Varl and John Hopkins as Erend has really brought back the tone of comradery found in the original game.”

Source
 

nowhat

Member
Good. It would have been terrible if there'd been some AI abomination, even with permission from his estate.
 
Keith David already took over one of his roles in Destiny and imo it was god awful.

I just heard Lance everytime he spoke to cope with how bad it was.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
You can't just replace him with another baritone black guy. There was a subtlety in his performance that is difficult to replicate and I doubt whoever they chose will actually be able to. It's just a major loss for the franchise and it wouldn't surprise me if they right him out of future games for this reason.
 
Was the all state guy in the Splinter Cell games? Sounds like one of the guys who would brief you before and during missions.
In Pandora Tomorrow yeah, he was the briefing guy. I haven’t played the Horizon games but Lance usually spoke with heavy enunciation and a militaristic tone in most of his roles. Allstate guy (Dennis Haysbert) would do well if this role is like that.
 
You can't just replace him with another baritone black guy. There was a subtlety in his performance that is difficult to replicate and I doubt whoever they chose will actually be able to. It's just a major loss for the franchise and it wouldn't surprise me if they right him out of future games for this reason.
Personally I have never been a fan of this ‘when the actor dies the role dies’ mentality. Disney messed up Black Panther’s entire timeline and the BP 2 movie because of that. Gen V(The Boys spinoff) is about to face a similar issue due to Chance’s death.

Usually in the past decades, when an actor either left a role or died they would do their due diligence to find a great enough replacement for the role. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the point is that the writers aren’t suddenly scrapping tons of work and having to do last minute rewrites, because that’s how you get a dip in quality.

Edit: Also I didn’t just pick any 3 black guys with a baritone voice. Listen to the clips, their enunciation, speaking pattern, etc.
 
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BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
They should’ve just killed off the character IMO. But TBH I have played a few hundred hours of Destiny 2 and don’t remember a single thing about the narrative, but I do remember accepting quests from Lance Reddick.
 

Vick

Gold Member
I'm curious, but I've already accepted this as a lost cause in the future games because no one on this planet can get even close to what Lance brought to this character.

As I said one year before he passed away:

His lines as Sylens, on a Home Theatre, are a constant and literal eargasm.

To the point simply hearing him talk and reveal secrets, as silly as this sounds, has always been a major motivation for me in these games. He was just too goddamn good.
 
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Loomy

Banned
not just saying this to puff up a dead guy, his performance was amazing and really stood out in a title that otherwise had lots of sus acting.
He was very good as Sylens. As Zavala too.

Keith David already took over one of his roles in Destiny and imo it was god awful.

I just heard Lance everytime he spoke to cope with how bad it was.
I get that it was his take but yeah, it didn't feel like Zavala. Made worse by the fact that Lance Reddick's voice lines were still in the game.

In Pandora Tomorrow yeah, he was the briefing guy. I haven’t played the Horizon games but Lance usually spoke with heavy enunciation and a militaristic tone in most of his roles. Allstate guy (Dennis Haysbert) would do well if this role is like that.
That would be my choice of the 3 shared up here.
 
Lance Reddick did a stellar job as Sylens and Zavala (Destiny). His performance always stood out when he was in the spotlight, and he was always up for doing rehearsal of his lines to please fans and whatnot. Every year he would record a message for Destiny fans in commemorative dates. We lost one of the good ones.
 

nowhat

Member
Assuming Guerrilla would still use Lance's appearance, there is also the consideration of facial features/shape of the face for future facial capture. The closer the actor's face is to that of the model, the better the results are/need less tweaking afterwards.

Given these constraints, the obvious replacement is Ru Paul.
 
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