Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Actor Left After 'Some Weird Changes' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 October 2015 / 4,696 Views
Actor Alan Tudyk has revealed that he was originally performing voice acting work for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, however he left the production after changes were made that voided his contract.
"I left because they decided to go a different way with it and so when they did that, when they changed leadership, it made my contract null and void and I was able to take that opportunity to walk away which was great because I got the experience of doing it, I made some friends - not with Naughty Dog - but I made some friends with the people that left," Tudyk told IGN.
"Todd Stashwick was in that as well who is in Con Man and he did the same thing I did which was 'yeah we're gonna leave now. Y'all are making some weird changes, we're gonna leave'. Sorry Nolan, we left you, we just walked away, we abandoned him."
Alan Tudyk is best known for his role as Wash on Firefly. He is also going to star in the upcoming film Star Wars: Rogue One.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I really hope I don't hurt anyone's feelings. But the direction Amy Hennig gave Uncharted 3 was not exactly what can be call "outstanding". She was also responsible for the script of Uncharted 4 at some point. There is no need to be an insider for us to understand that this "Weird Change" was Neil Druckmann (that was busy directing The Last of Us) taking over the project and dishing what Amy had in mind, including Alan Tudyk character. Creativity is a weapon of two edges, specially if you are not the one calling the shots in a project.
Do recall that Amy also wrote 2, and that Druckmann and Straley worked on 3 too according to their recent quotes (saying there was never an "official" split into two teams). We can't blame Hennig entirely for the story of 3, no more than we can blame Druckmann if 4's plot sucks.
Either way, we at least know the coup was real. Whether cutting out the villain to replace him with Troy Baker with a long lost brother plot is worth the change, we'll never know.
'Uncharted 3' was outstanding.
Talk about burning your bridges.
Something obviously upset him. You don't make that kind of statement if you leave a project under civil terms. My guess is that his role got axed or changed enough beyond what he wanted to do.
I'm guessing Neil took the story around a dark turn that it wasn't originally intended to go. I dunno if it's going to work well with the story or not as I've yet to play it, but I'd bet it was a turn off to Alan who has done more lighthearted work in the past than the seriousness we saw in TLoU.
There will definitely some changes on U4 after Neil's team has taken over, everyone can see that just looking at their work on TLOU. They even said that they will apply some of the new things they learn in making TLOU for the U4 but still keep it light hearted as possible to not stray away from what Uncharted was known for. I still trust ND will deliver another masterpiece game in the form of Uncharted 4.
I presume by changes that allowed him to void his contract it would mean the amount of screen time his character would get had been cut below what the contract stipulated as a minimum. It's not like the "weird" changes would be forcing him to do some kinky sex stuff with a sheep. I think I trust Druckmann to know what he's doing moreso than Alan Tudyk having a good handle on how that game is coming along. I think there were obviously a lot of ND staff who love Amy and loved working for her, and at various points since she left they found themselves enjoying being at ND less and less. Whether that's because the vibe of the place changed, or there was residual resentment at Amy being pushed out, or there was an active plan to remove Amy "loyalists" is not possible to say. But for whatever reason you will have ex ND staff who have an axe to grind against ND and some of what they say should be read with a somewhat sceptical eye.
The thing is, for a company like Naughty Dog, you need strong leadership, to impose your vision. This also means that conflicts will occur, and they can become nasty. We have seen this from far smaller developers, but to be honest, it seems that there is still plenty of talent left here, for them to easily remain one of the best development team in the industry. After Uncharted and The Last of Us I am more then willing to trust them to make the best decisions that are needed for their next projects.
Over the last few years some really strange messages from people leaving Naughty Dog and now this again its a great game making studio but something is going wrong there because this isnt the first strange message.
Lets hope it doesnt effect the outcome of this, what seems to be, epic upcoming game.
Do we really have to exaggerate that? Naughty Dog survived the loss of the 2 guys that made Crash, so a random guy walking away from the studio because "ah don't like that, I go" is not going to make a different.
Personally, i prefer Neil work over Amy, since his work on TLOU was masterfully crafted. Don't get me wrong, i love them both but Neil has a slightly edge when it come to story telling.
Again, this is just my opinion :P.
Anyways, Bring Jak and Daxter back Sony! Oh and Sly Cooper too! We want Sly Cooper 5 and Jak 4!
Probably a good decision to leave as videogame VoiceOver work is considered the lowest form of acting in the industry.
