Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Tails’ voice actress for the past seven years, has confirmed on Twitter that she will not be reprising her role in the upcoming Netflix series, Sonic Prime.
Unlike Roger Craig Smith, this does not yet appear to mark a permanent departure from the role, and it appears that Sonic Prime may instead either have a separate voice cast, or only share some cast members from the games. What makes O’Shaughnessey‘s lack of involvement especially surprising is that she did actually voice Tails in last year’s Sonic the Hedgehog movie.
Mike Pollock, the voice of Eggman, does appear to at least be hinting that he is a part of the production. Though he could also just be trolling us for his own amusement:
Turnover in the Sonic voice acting cast is nothing new. Back in 2019, several characters had their voices recast, the most notable of them being Knuckles. The first major voice actor overhaul came in 2005, when every voice actor from the games was replaced with the cast from the recently released 4kids dub of Sonic X. That cast was in turn replaced five years later in 2010.
This makes me wonder if its just Mike Pollock returning as Eggman, with Canadian actors taking over.
In fact, I’d think Madeline Peters might make a decent Tails.
I would have a separate voice cast for Sonic Prime.
I remember when they changed the entire 2005 voice cast, it was a huge blow for me, specially as they radically changed how some characters sounded like Knuckles and Rouge, but I guess this is bound to happen with such a long-running franchise like Sonic.
Personally I wouldn’t be as afflicted if they change the current voice cast for the games, I think it was perfect for Sonic Boom but lacking for the mainline games so in my opinion this would be a welcomed change but I understand if not everyone feels the same way.
This voice is probably the most fitting out of the cast changes from 2010 onwards, it’s a natural fit, even if it’s quite different from Any Palant’s version, which I think is a more interesting voice for Tails. Mostly because it struck a good balance between boy/cartoon while the other voices usually sound more like a normal young boy would.
The OVA voice is probably the other time that had a good balance but perhaps a tad too annoying.