Over the past day, a rumour surfaced that Roger Craig Smith's return as the Sonic the Hedgehog voice actor would be a one-off.
It stems from comments made by Super Monkey Ball announcer Brian Maa-Uhl on a recent YouTube Q&A, which are open to interpretation. During the live stream, he noted how Sonic's voice actor had come out of retirement to return for "one last job".
This of course caught the attention of the Sonic fandom, and the voice of Sonic has since denied this on social media - reassuring fans he's here to stay. Or in his words:
"Trust THIS source: I'm back...period."
At the start of 2021, Smith announced his departure from the role. Sega seemingly made it official with its own parting message and then out of the blue, the same voice actor announced his surprise return to the role in May. No reason for his departure or return was officially revealed.
"I can't fully express my gratitude for the @sonic_hedgehog crew and community. I hope to honor your support and passion as I'm officially back voicing #SonicTheHedgehog in games. Can't wait for ya to see what we have planned! THANK YOU...from the bottom of my blue heart."
So there you have it - according to the Sonic voice actor himself, he'll be hanging around. Are you looking forward to more Sonic projects featuring Roger Craig Smith in the future? Tell us down below.
Comments (37)
It begs the question though, why did they let him go in the first place?
So, in a six month window, this guy either quit or was fired from the role and then he just came back? What happened?
One I want to know the same question @SwitchVogel and @TheJGG want to know, Two, Thank you, I'm so glad he is here to stay.
He was probably negotiating a new contract and having to play a little hardball....
@Snatcher @SwitchVogel Google tells me it was four months, to the day. It's so suspicious it feels staged. tinfoil hat Either way he's great, funny, witty and snarky. No-one better.
@TheJGG Ya I feel that way too. And I agree, He is one of the best sonic voices in my opinion, and waay better then movie sonic, what you just now guessed I'm not a fan of movie sonics voice
Now if only Sega could cook up a game worth the trouble of VA
@SwitchVogel That’s just how Sonic does retirement.
FAST
Really I have no idea. I’m just as curious!
The story
I want a 5dollar raise!!!
Sega; no..
If i dont get 5 extra i quit!
Sega; Bye..
Okay im off!
Sega; "Sega looks for new sonic voice actor"
Okay uhm. Guys i am back!!! 🤣
End of story.
Sonic reviewed his retirement and pension plans.......
He’s working until he dies or gets ran over.
@NinChocolate Yakuza, Judgement, Persona.
I know that you were joking, I just felt hurt reading that.
@X68000
"You may be the fastest thing alive, but if you even think about stepping outta line... I can assure that you won't be the fastest at dying..."
Glad to have him back.
Still miss the Adventure era voice though. But that's just a me thing.
@NinChocolate I just bought Sonic Forces on a whim and beat it in a few days. Pretty fun game actually.
@HotGoomba I had Sonic Team firmly in mind on that one
@conditionals personal taste above all else! Especially Internet comments
@NinChocolate ha let's just say I was surprised. But yeah, would be cool if there was a game which didn't have to come with guilty pleasure qualifiers
Dudebro Sonic. I wish someone at Sega would just grab a Sonic game from 1998 to 2009 and listen to how cool Sonic used to sound like, these voice actors are still around, they love voicing the character (and have even done so in recent fan works) like, c'mon.
One of the best reasons to play SatBK nowadays is to appreciate how good the voice acting was at one point in the series. The other of course being the last Sonic game with a serious plot, and a good message.
Adventure era Sonic voice sounds like bad 4Kids acting (All of them). Never found the appeal.
I was hoping Samuel L Jackson would voice.
"I'm threatening to leave and I'm going to announce it on social media so the threat carries more weight, gimme a raise."
"Ok, we'll wish you farewell on social media. No raise."
"Wait, no please, I need this job. I was just kidding."
"Good, get back to work."
"Oh, I'm glad to hear that," said no one.
They're just doing this for attention. He announced his departure then only a few months later announced he's back and he's writing "I'm here to stay im back!" Acting as if he left for years or something. Lmfaooo
@Skunkfish I feel like this is the case. Keep in mind, this was on the heels on Sonic 30th. If Roger did leave, Sega would of needed to cast someone as Sonic ASAP. Y'all need to keep in mind that voice acting is very low paying compared to the rest of Hollywood and the like.
@Ardisan The irony of this statement is so thick; you can make a wafiu out of it.
Personally, I feel like the biggest issue with Roger isn't his voice, but the script he was given. Unlike Ryan or Jason, Roger hasn't really played Sonic in a serious (Or as serious as you can take Sonic) tone yet. And Roger himself is a good actor in serious roles as well, so I wonder how it would work for him for Sonic Prime and Sonic 2022 (AKA Rangers). I think a good test would be to hand him a script from a previous series that a different voice actor for Sonic did (I'm thinking either Sonic Adventure 2 or SatAM) and see how Roger would act for it.
@SwitchVogel His contract was about to expire and the new Netflix series is going to have it's own original cast. It doesn't take much effort to come to the conclusion that the cast thought their time was up (it wasn't just Roger) - look at what happened with Sonic X. They likely decided to announce they were stepping back rather than let themselves get fired, but later behind the scenes things got worked out and the old cast was able to reaudition and get new contracts signed.
Will this mean the cast won't be as inconsistent as it used to be?
@TheJGG Probably because SEGA wanted to replace him with Ben Schwartz, then they learned he'd cost them millions just to voice Sonic, but it was a little too late after firing Roger, so SEGA backed down on that and rehired him. I still don't know if the other voice actors are coming back as well.
@Ardisan We
Then we experienced true pain as Sonic got voiced by a literal 4kids dub actor then got replaced by someone that progressively started to sound like someone’s dad trying to sound cool, they desperately need a change here but I don’t think Sega has a clue on how to make Sonic act cool again and they are too out of touch to realize it.
@Anti-Guy My thoughts exactly. I mean Ben Schwartz is a stand up comedian so of course he'd be expensive. God that must have been very awkward when they had to come back together...
I'm sure we'll find out in a few years when either Ben or Roger release their autobiographies.
He wanted to see the fans response. Wanted to see how they'd react to his departure. I dunno if that's it, it's just my theory.
@thiz Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, Sonic Mania... yeah, absolutely awful games, sure thing...
@SwitchVogel i guess they got rid of him because of netflix, couldn't find someone better & willing that wouldn't make half the fanbases ear's bleed and was forced to bring him back.
or this was all some huge paperwork ***** up in the middle of the corporate shuffle
@thiz It's 2021 and ya'll are still saying this *****? lmfao grow tfu.
@thiz I suppose math is not one of your skills.
@ShadowofTwilight22 Roger Craig Smith is not the writter for Sonic's character, so Sonic's attitude will either change or be kept regardless of the actor playing him as that is completely up to the writter or the director. You people don't even know what are you complaining about or who to blame to.
@Orpheus79V Didn't most of them were left go for the second season of Sonic Boom? But yeah. Voice acting is rough and unpredictable. But I think you are expecting people to be able to remember stuff that happened way before they were born or at least old enough to make a coherent thought.
Like RCS is great as sonic. But more importantly, than his performance is the fact that Sega needs some goddamn consistency. So I'm glad they got him back. Let the voices be consistent while your games never are...
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