‘Resident Evil 2’ Remake Won't Feature The Same Voice Actors For Claire, Leon & Ada

Capcom is developing a remake of “Resident Evil 2,” but the voice actors of Claire, Leon and Ada are not returning.

Allyson Court, who provided the voice for Claire Redfield to the original 1998 “Resident Evil 2,” confirmed that she would not be reprising her role for Capcom’s upcoming remake. Court has been Claire Redfield’s voice for a total of five games and one CG animated film.

The Canadian actress confirmed that Capcom has decided to hire a non-union actress instead, according to PCGamesN. Union actors have been demanding better compensation for their works in video games, whether it be voice or motion capture. The SAG-AFTRA union strike has been going on since October 2016. Court is a member of the Canadian union ACTRA, whose performers were also refusing work in solidarity with U.S. union actors.

Court says that she was approached by the producer of the “Resident Evil 2” remake a year and a half ago. However, two competing companies also wanted to do the localisation and motion capture for the game. By the end of it, Capcom simply decided to go for a non-union actor instead.

Court has uploaded a series of videos on YouTube explaining exactly what happened. In her third video, she said that Capcom was going in a different creative decision, which is why the developer wasn’t going to use her and the other actors for the remake.

At the same time, actor Matthew Mercer also confirmed via Twitter that he won’t be voicing Leon S. Kennedy for the “Resident Evil 2” remake. All Mercer could say about it was that he thinks that Capcom was specifically looking for non-union actors for the project.

Mercer was the voice of Leon in 2012’s “Resident Evil 6” and the CG animated films “Resident Evil: Damnation” (2012) and “Resident Evil: Vendetta” (2017).

Courtenay Taylor also confirmed on her Twitter account that she would not be voicing Ada Wong for the “Resident Evil 2” remake. “I loved voicing Ada Wong and would happily do it again if a Union project comes around,” she said in her tweet.

Capcom hasn’t revealed who the new voice actors will be for the “Resident Evil 2” remake, but it will sure sound different from what fans are used to hearing.

Capcom has remained silent on the development of the remake, and it didn’t even announce anything about it during E3 2017. The project was first announced back in 2015, and Capcom confirmed that it was going to be a full-blown remake rather than an HD remaster.

Capcom has seen success in releasing HD remasters of “Resident Evil” and “Resident Evil 0,” but “Resident Evil 2” will only be the second game in the franchise to receive the full remake treatment. The original 1996 “Resident Evil” was remade for the GameCube in 2002.

There’s still no confirmation of a release date for the remake. However, Capcom did state in its last financial report that it will release a major title by March 31, 2018, accoridng to VG247. That release windows could also be for “Monster hunter World,” which is slated to be released in early 2018.

In a recent interview with Collider, Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi stated that the “Resident Evil 2” remake “will be out from Capcom soon.” Kobayashi has worked on the video game franchise since 1998, and he last served as an executive producer for 2012’s “Resident Evil 6.”