Although Gearbox’s last Borderlands title, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, released almost five years ago, fans of the series did get to return to Pandora one time since. Tales From the Borderlands released episodically from late 2014 to 2015, and though it was developed by Telltale Games, the title won critical acclaim. More recently, fans were excited to see Rhys, the game’s protagonist, appear in the trailer for Borderlands 3. Unfortunately, it seems that Troy Baker, the voice of Rhys in Tales From the Borderlands, will not be returning to the franchise.
Troy Baker Won’t be Voicing Borderlands 3 Rhys
Troy Baker is one of the best-known voice actors in the gaming industry; he voiced Joel in The Last of Us, Booker DeWitt in Bioshock Infinite, and Sam Drake in Uncharted 4, among dozens of other roles. However, despite his appearance as Rhys being widely-praised; it seems that Gearbox did not approach him about reprising the role in Borderlands 3. Baker clarified that he was not involved with the game at a recent Q&A event in Australia. There, he said; “I’m sorry to break it to y’all, that isn’t me.”
He went on to say; “If Gearbox decides that they’ll let me do it, that’ll be awesome. I have no idea. There was a possibility that I was gonna be in it, then I saw that epic, epic trailer, and everyone’s like ‘Oh my god, there’s Rhys!’ And I went, ‘Well, there we go.’ I’ve never done this before, but I would love for Gearbox to know that it’s not about me, it’s about that character. If they’re going to bring back characters from Telltale Borderlands, it should be the people that originated the characters.”
Baker’s sentiments are likely to be echoed by many fans of Tales From the Borderlands. While it’s theoretically possible that Gearbox could still approach him about voicing the role, it does seem fairly unlikely. The game is due to release on the 13th of September, after all. It’s notable that none of the trailers released so far have featured in-game dialogue. However, it’s likely that most, if not all, is already recorded. It’s currently unknown why Gearbox didn’t ask Baker to reprise the role.