Dead Rising’s original voice actor confirms he will not return to the role

A survival horror video game fan reached out to the original voice actor of zombie survival adventure Dead Rising to ask why a different voice was used for the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster announced last week other than that of photojournalist Frank West. After Capcom announced that the 2006 classic would be updated for modern hardware, fans noticed in the trailer shown last week that the voice actor appeared to be different.

The simple answer is that Capcom didn’t contact Terence J. Rotolo to bring him back for the role. That’s a shame, considering that in the first Dead Rising, released in 2006, Rotolo said one of the greatest, gruff, grizzled lines in the video game world: “I covered wars, you know.” “Cult” is an overused word in pop culture and marketing, but it might actually fit here, considering how often it’s been referenced, if not made into a meme.

But if Splinter Cell (Ubisoft) no longer has Michael Ironside as the voice of Sam Fisher and Metal Gear (Konami) could part ways with David Hayter, then it’s quite logical that Capcom could take a different direction when re-releasing its genre-defining classic 18 years after the original was released.

Got some news on the Dead Rising Remake. The reason TJ Rotolo isn’t returning as Frank West’s voice is simply because Capcom has NOT contacted him. It’s probably because TJ is in a union and Capcom is biased against anyone who is in a union. It’s a shame. But what can we do. So… pic.twitter.com/1ztyGK4oK8

— FrankByDaylight (@FrankByDaylight) June 28, 2024

FrankByDaylight speculates that Capcom did not bring Rotolo back because he has a union card with SAG-AFTRA, which inevitably comes with a higher price and different conditions for contract work.

Who can say? This is supposed to be a remaster, not a remake, which makes the decision to swap out the lead actor’s voices a little unusual. But contracts and licenses can be stubborn things, even two decades later.

In any case, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will be released on September 19th for PlayStation 5, Windows PC via Steam and Xbox Series X.\

Featured image via Steam