sisslethecat
Well, this is a shame – but news that’s been expected somewhat.
Alyson Court, the iconic voice of Resident Evil‘s Claire Redfield in all but one of her appearances, confirmed via YouTube today that she will not be reprising the character for the upcoming Resident Evil 2 Remake.
Announced about two years ago, fans have been eagerly anticipating the remake as RE2 is often cited as being one of the best games in the series, and the one other true remake (Resident Evil 2002, or REmake as fans call it) is equally beloved. One of the concerns fans had, however, was the voice cast. Resident Evil is kind of all over the place with the actors who have portrayed their heroes and villains – even the most popular voices like Roger Craig Smith (Chris Redfield), Paul Mercier (Leon Kennedy), and Sally Cahill (Ada Wong), have all been replaced over the years, and even then some of our favorite voices are replacements of others themselves (D.C. Douglas took over Albert Wesker from Richard Waugh, etc).
Claire, however, managed to stay consistently Alyson Court for nearly every single one of the characters’ appearances, until 2016’s Resident Evil: Revelations 2. It looks like this is going to carry on into REmake 2, as Alyson Court explains in a video update. Capcom did contact her early on in production, acknowledging the fan outcry for her return, but eventually the 3rd party localization team handling the game chose to go non-union, meaning that Alyson cannot reprise the role without breaking union. It’s a huge shame, but like I said, not unexpected.
Actors have to be careful working with their unions, and while some do break union and work under pseudonyms (worth noting that Claire’s Revelations 2 voice is provided by ‘James Baker’ … uh), not every actor can take that risk, or is willing to break union for a paycheck. You can watch her full explanation below.
