In sad news, it appears that Roger Craig Smith will depart from the role of Sonic the Hedgehog’s western voice actor after 10 years in the driving seat.
A post made on Smith’s Twitter account on Thursday indicated he is moving on from his long-held position:
If so, we at Sonic Stadium want to thank Roger for all he has done to embellish the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, and we hope he will remain part of our ever-growing community!
Source: Roger Craig Smith via Twitter
His Twitter doesn’t make it explicit, but yeah, definitely seems to be the case. That’s really unfortunate.
Hopefully the next VA is as good as him.
It may be Ben Schwartz.
Also, there’s a chance the new Sonic animated series will use Canadian Actors. If, for some reason, they get Mike Pollock alongside them, that would be a big surprise.
I swear if Ben Schwartz is the next VA for the games, I’m gonna be so pissed. He’s good for the movies, but he would make Sonic sound so much cornier than even Roger
Wow, this came out of nowhere! Or maybe not? Most of the time when a Sonic VA is replaced is due a new tv show airing soon, so it’s probably because of the upcoming Netflix show, also I think is highly likely the “new” voice will be Ben Schwartz.
Good.
“Most of the time when a Sonic VA is replaced is due a new tv show airing soon”
Except that’s almost never been the case. Sonic X aired before the game cast was replaced by the 4Kids cast, and the near-all-change around 2009-2010 was at least 3 years before Sonic Boom was even announced, let alone broadcast. The only change that fits your pattern is Colleen Villiard replacing Kate Higgins as Tails’ VA in 2014.
If Sega didn’t want to pay Ryan Drummond union wages back when he re-auditioned, there’s no way in hell that they’ll pay Ben Schwartz SAG-AFTRA wages for voicing Sonic in the games.
Can’t say Roger was a favorite of mine far as voice actors goes but I respect his work and also got used to him as Sonic sometime after The Black Knight I think.
More curious on who Sonic’s next VA is gonna be right now.
He wasn’t in Black Knight. His first game was Colours.
I know, I meant to write Lost World. Dunno why I wrote The Black Knight.
“…sometime after The Black Knight I think.”
My bad, I meant to write Lost World. >.<
Why. Am I not shocked.
Well, I’m gonna be honest. Roger was tied with Jason as my favorite Sonic. When I think of something in Sonic’s voice I think of either of them. Ben Schwartz seems like a really nice guy and I love how much passion he has for the franchise but…he does not sound like Sonic. At all. To me at least. If he’s Sonic’s main voice going forward it’s gonna take a LOT for me to get used to. So yeah, I’m pretty bummed out about this. I have a feeling the rest of the voice cast is going too but who knows, nowadays I feel like companies use one voice acting studio for everything and it’s primarily the same people who do the current Sonic voice cast. As long as they don’t commit the ultimate sin of getting rid of Mike Pollock, I’m happy.
I really respect Roger as a VA.
But part of me is really hoping this is sign of Izuka pushing to please fans more, as he did say explicitly that he wanted to increase quality from here on out (of course we need to see that to believe it). Roger was great. But I think a lot of people feel as though he represents some of the most poorly-written and discontentedly light-hearted Sonic games in the entire franchise. Maybe they’ll be looking to bring it to a more agreeable tone and atmosphere in the future.
Now we just need to hear the news that the Happy Tree Friends writers are being replaced and I’ll be hopeful.
Pontac and Graff already left about a year ago I believe.
As long as Jun’ichi Kanemaru remains…
Yeah, I say it’s time to pass the torch. Willing to bet Ben Schwartz will begin voicing Sonic in the games in addition to the movies, kinda like how they had Sonic’s voice actor from the English dub of Sonic X, Jason Griffith, voice him in the games for a while.
Big News If true. Would be sad If he leaves.
That’s actually a shame I have to be honest. While Jason remains to be my favorite, I was quite accustomed to and really liked Roger’s rendition of the character. He more or less has the right sound for a slightly older Sonic but outside of Colors and Sonic Boom I felt he never got the chance to show his full ability, which is less down to him and more the tone of the writing. All that said, if this is the end of the road for him in the role then I’m grateful for his contribution and wish him well with his future endeavours.
Sayonara Roger Craig Smith.
As much as I LOVE Roger Craig Smith, I want Jason Griffith to come back. Although he isn’t part of 4Kids Entertainment anymore, there is hope.
I reckon Max Mittelman will be a good replacement for Roger
Sad news, I know that when he came not many were fond of the change…but It’s been more than 10 years since he came and I eneded up really fond of his Sonic voice, wishing him all the luck in the world, I think It’s fitting to use those lines of him to say goodbye:Hey Sonic enjoy you’re future It’s gonna be great!
I wonder if Ben Schwartz will take up the role of Sonic for the games as well as the Movies. I mean, he DOES do Cartoon voiceovers as well, so I figured he could do Sonic in the games, as well.
I was in attendance when he took the time out of his busy schedule during SDCC several years ago to meet fans and sign autographs
The voice he provided personally took me some getting used to when I played Colors, but after his work with Boom (and various roles on Cartoon Network) I can say he’s up there amongst the other VAs
Good luck Roger 🙂
A repost, since this site screwed up the paragraph breaks:
I guess Smith just didn’t have what it took to read and perform a script from anything resembling the Adventure era. From Colors to TSR, Smith has always portrayed Sonic as some smug, comedic, millennial fool, just to piss off the supporting cast to snap at him, and anyone who’s ever owned a Dreamcast/GameCube in the early 2000’s.
And yet not a damn thing was announced since Team Sonic Racing.
But so help me, if SEGA retools the blue hedgehog’s character to match whoever they hire to replace him, I’ll just have to flip them the bird and ignore that actor altogether. What CAN I do at this point?
Or I can continue to live in a sub-reality where a bulk of the games after Sonic Advance 2 are better made/written, while other games just don’t exist. I just want to fix this franchise so FUCKING badly, but their are no opportunities for me to try other than social media (Twitter) and trying to track down their office phone number/Iizuka’s e-mail address (with the aid of Google translate because I have zero knowledge on how to speak Japanese, let alone “business”).
But seriously: PLEASE, PLEASE rehire Ryan Drummond, the guy who previous auditioned to be Sonic again, even after you sack the entire cast for the 4Kids voice actors! And no, Ben Schwarz (Dewey Duck) is not a good fit for the core franchise (outside of the Sonic films).
So Roger’s final role as Sonic was Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 then?
I’m not too surprised as usually they replace the voices after 5 years. It’s amazing he made it to 10 years instead. plus when it comes to anniversaries they like to change things in hopes to make it refreshing.
It’s normal for them to end on the year the new voices start too.
Ryan did the Mc Donalds advert in the start of 2005 (Jason started in the games 2005)
Jason did Sonic & Sega all stars racing start of 2010 (Roger Started in the games 2010)
Roger did Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 start of 2021
I’m expecting Ben Schwartz even though personally i hope its not him. he just plays himself as proven with the movie where it was more Ben than Sonic. If you watch all his VA performances in the cartoons he’s done their all basically the same person, just check out his performance in Ducktales and Teenage mutant ninja turtles and you’ll see what i mean. I’m not trying to be rude cause he’s just doing his job which is being himself as that sells and thats the norm for actors, they hire them for them.
Are there chances Ryan Drummond will be back? who knows. depending if they got a good deal as we know last time for Sonic’s 20th he was chosen to return but the whole Union thing caused a problem so unless they changed that Ryan could return.
Plus with the push of pleasing fans these days as-well as the nostalgia feelings for the Adventure series again which Sega have been expressing lately, plus the rumours of Adventure remakes I wouldn’t be surprised if they got Ryan Drummond back for this next era of Sonic. Sonic’s 30th is a big deal so surely they would want to make it something special that brings back a few things as well as new experiences.
I watched Emi’s Twitch stream maybe like last week or the week before and Ryan said that his agent contacted SEGA for him to make a comeback to the Sonic series. No word yet! But I am also hoping Jason will come back as Sonic. At the same time, I wanted Emi to talk with Jason, but she said that he’s very busy right now, but maybe in the near future. And I hope Jason will reprise his role as Tom Majors in the upcoming Chaotic revival as well.
Most people keeps saying that Ben should be Sonic’s next VA but I don’t find it likely. He wouldn’t fit game Sonic at all, atleast not without really understanding Sonic’s personality and traits in the games.