Nintendo fans were treated to a new teaser trailer of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. And many are convinced perennial villain Ganondorf was voiced by none other than Critical Role’s Matt Mercer.
The most recent Nintendo Direct had some welcome surprises, including the inclusion of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to the Nintendo Switch library. But the biggest reaction clearly went to the preview of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
The new trailer for the sequel to the highly successful The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was shown at the tail end of the Nintendo Direct stream.
Aside from the new gameplay footage, the trailer gave more insight into the story of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Part of the latter is a few lines from Calamity Ganondorf, the game’s main villain. After hearing the antagonist’s lines, fans are convinced he is being voiced by Matthew Mercer. While it has not been officially confirmed, the speculation trended on Twitter and Reddit discussions.
An epic adventure across the land and skies of Hyrule awaits in The Legend of #Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Watch the latest trailer to see what Link’s latest quest has in store, and the evil that awaits him… pic.twitter.com/b4p7auKMpQ
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 8, 2023
Matt Mercer should be no stranger to anyone in the gaming and pop culture community. Aside from being the Dungeon Master in the actual play Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role, Mercer has over 400 credits on his IMDB profile. Mercer has voiced roles in Attack on Titan (Levi Ackerman), Dota 2 (Monkey King), Overwatch (Cole Cassidy), JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Jotaro Kujo), World of Warcraft (multiple), and many more over the past 20+ years.
Of course, Mercer’s role as the Dungeon Master of Critical Role is the most familiar to fans of the D&D tabletop roleplaying game. Critical Role has been a major influence to D&D’s prevalence in the past decade, after the show switched from Pathfinder to the Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. Matt Mercer’s ability to essay multiple NPCs with unique voices for the Dungeons & Dragons online actual play web series has become the gold standard for game masters of TTRPGs across the world.
Critical Role has become such a huge success that it has established its own publishing company (Darrington Press) and the Amazon Prime animated series The Legend of Vox Machina, which is already on its second season. Matt Mercer, of course, has voice roles in the animated episodes.
Interestingly, Matt Mercer has played Ganondorf before… sort of. Mercer appeared as Ganondorf Dragmire in the 2009 web series There Will Be Brawl, a spoof of There Will Be Blood. The character was an obvious parody of the Zelda antagonist as he was depicted in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Ha! Thanks! Man, I’m still proud of that series. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that low-budget passion project.
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) July 23, 2018
And while consumers are openly criticizing the high price of the upcoming Zelda game, the addition of a fan-favorite voice actor like Critical Role’s Matthew Mercer to the Breath of the Wild sequel is a welcome surprise. Mercer and Critical Role was also recently criticized for being silent during the OGL (Open Gaming License) controversy plaguing Wizards of the Coast and the Dungeons & Dragons brand.
In any case, we will find out if arch-villain Ganon does have Matt Mercer’s voice when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releases on May 21, 2023.
