The demise of a great character

As of today Kiefer Sutherland will be the new voice for Snake in MGS V. He will be the voice of Snake, unless Kojima is playing a prank on everybody. Just to quickly get one point out of the way. I`m someone who, at times was thinking that gamers think they are entitled to something they are not. The outrage from a small part of the fanbase based on Dantes design change would be one of the examples. I brushed them off as gamers feeling entitled to something they are not. In some ways it might look now the same, that I feel entitled to something and I would say that might be true to some extend.

Unsurprisingly the change to Sutherland sparked some discussions among fans of the Metal Gear series. David Hayter was forced to retire and in some way it is as sad as the "retirement" of The Boss in MGS 3. Just this time the player didn`t pull the trigger and instead Kojima did. It is Kojima`s game and he can decide who he want`s in the game, but this series is known for it`s fan service and now suddenly a different voice actor will be playing Snake. A character that has been voiced since 1998 and brought to life by David Hayter. Solid Snake and Big Boss, two different characters that are still the same.

We have seen the character fighting against a Hind on a rooftop with only stinger missiles, trying to save Meryl from a sniper after she got shot, infiltrating a ship carrying Metal Gear Ray, killing his mentor, building an army, having a hand in creating the Patriots as well as growing old and finishing his story and work to bring down the Patriots. These are the stories of Solid Snake and Big Boss we know, we experienced those stories in the last 15 years with Hayter. Who doesn`t remember the scene after defeating Sniper Wolf? Crawling through the microwave? Fighting Psycho Mantis, The Boss, Greyfox and many others? Those moments have been created by Kojima but also by David Hayter.

There are arguments that Big Boss is now older, in his late 40`s, but Solid Snake in MGS4 was a lot older. If Kojima thinks that David Hayter is not the right person to voice a 49 year old Big Boss then Hayter was the wrong person to voice old Snake.

Some people like Keifer Sutherland and some don`t. In the western regions many people will know Sutherland and it will help promoting the game having his name attached to the project. This is where I see the reason for the change, it`s not because Hayter would be less suitable. Hayter is the character he knows the character he helped create Solid Snake and Big Boss and bring them to life. There is nobody more suitable to lend his voice to the character and he is also a trained actor, just not as well known among the general public.

The interesting thing is that in Japan the Japanese voice for Snake will be still voicing him. So why does Hayter have to leave but not the Japanese voice actor? It is very possible that the reason behind this is that Voice actors in japan are big stars. They make voice overs for games, animes and OVAs and so on. He is already a very well known actor in Japan while unfortunately Hayter isn`t in the western regions, so there is no reason for Kojima to replace the Japanase actor and it is likely that if Kojima would decide to do so the discussions would be even bigger because of the status that voice actors have in Japan.

For me and probably many other Metal Gear fans I salute David Hayter for the great work he did on the series and he will always be Snake for me. This is why for me having Hayter leave the position as Snake is equally sad to having The Boss die in Snake Eater. From the ashes of The Bosses death the Patriots and Big Boss rose, so let`s hope from the death of the real Big Boss a new movement will rise to honor the work done previously by Snake. It will be too late to get Hayter back since it`s likely that voice recording is done or almost done, but he should be still honored.

#HayterIsSnake