Smith’s return was “one last job” according to Monkey Ball voice actor.
Shortly after our original story, Roger Craig Smith responded to a fan on twitter regarding the rumor.
There are many possible interpretations of Matt-Uhl’s “one last job” comment, whether he was mistaken, or if it refers to multiple future projects, or whether Sonic as a character is that “one last job” in of itself. However, at this time, it doesn’t seem like Smith has intent to leave the role in the immediate future.
Original story:
Brian Matt-Uhl, interpreter and voice actor for games such as Monkey Ball, Shenmue, and Gitaroo Man, held a live YouTube Q&A regarding the Monkey Ball series, the upcoming Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania, and his career as a western voice actor living in Japan.
However, around the 48 minute mark, Matt-Uhl mentions having met the voice actors for Sonic and Mario (he does not mention them by name, but presumably Roger Craig Smith and Charles Martinet respectively).
Talking with those narrators [voice actors], I’m very, very happy that our Sonic narrator is come back, he was gonna go on retirement, he came out to do [air quotes] one last job.
Brian Matt-Uhl, “Super Monkey Ball Main Announcer Brian Q&A” (YouTube), 48:14
Sega currently has several Sonic projects in the works, most notably Sonic Colors Ultimate, Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps, Sonic Prime, and the 2022 video game. We only know of Smith’s involvement in Rise of the Wisps; it’s unclear if Matt-Uhl was referring to that project or a future one.
Throughout the rest of the Q&A, Matt-Uhl speaks incredibly candidly about his experiences with previous Monkey Ball games, details he knows about the upcoming Banana Mania remake, and his struggles with Sega’s legal group and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio in having he and other Western voice actors credited for their work in the Monkey Ball series.
Thanks to Bulbasquirtle on our Discord for the tip!
I’m positive this is just a misunderstanding on his part, but perhaps I’m wrong. I just don’t believe Roger would announce his coming back only to do one more part. Maybe Matt didn’t know about Roger announcing his come back? I don’t know.
Think this has been massively misinterpreted and is a flippant joke/quip that has been taken literally by some. I believe Uhl was jokingly comparing Roger’s return to the known story cliche of the retired veteran detective/fighter/soldier etc, who is compelled to return for “one last job”. I’m not sure if Uhl would have much more knowledge than we do, given that he’s only been involved in a handful of SEGA games over the years and doesn’t seem to be actively involved in the Sonic franchise.
As I said, he wanted to do an encore performance for the 30th anniversary.
Sounds iffy to me. Why build up so much fanfare “returning” to Sonic if Roger was only going to do one more job? Might as well say nothing and let us assume that whatever new work we hear him in was done prior to his announcement of leaving the role.