If you thought you recognized Tears of the Kingdom’s Ganondorf voice actor, you were probably right. Critical Role sta Matt Mercer will bring the Demon King to life when Nintendo’s open-world sequel launches on May 12, 2023.
Aside from his work on Critical Role, the Dungeons and Dragons show where actors improvise an entire D&D campaign, Mercer is known as the actor behind the likes of Yusuke (Persona 5), Falco (Cyberpunk Edgerunners), Olivert Reise Arnor (Trails of Cold Steel), and Cole Cassidy (Overwatch 2), among many other roles.
I can FINALLY announce my absolute pleasure to be voicing Ganondorf in the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” Mercer said on Twitter, after Nintendo released the game’s final trailer. “An immense honor that I have thrown myself into doing justice. I have been an immense Legend of Zelda fan since I was a child, and Ganondorf has been one of my favorite antagonists… to the point where I portrayed this green-skinned menace for my webseries over a decade ago!”
I have been an immense Legend of Zelda fan since I was a child, and Ganondorf has been one of my favorite antagonists… to the point where I portrayed this green-skinned menace for my webseries over a decade ago! pic.twitter.com/FKqOTwg2hW
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) April 14, 2023
“Many of you know the weight of expectation on my shoulders for this, and I hope to do you proud.”
While fans speculated the dried-out corpse from the first Tears of the Kingdom trailer was the Gerudo warrior, it wasn’t until the launch trailer that Nintendo finally confirmed it – sort of.
There’s no actual footage yet of the mummy turning into Ganondorf, but it has long red hair, he has long red hair, and he’s definitely reborn. It’s pretty much a case of putting two and two together, though with the careful way Nintendo has presented story details so far, there’s no telling what might actually be in store.
Fans are hard at work trying to figure it out, though, and they’ve come up with some wild theories about Ganondorf, too.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
