Troy Baker Will Not be Reprising his Role as Rhys for Borderlands 3

There was a lot that people enjoyed about the Borderlands 3 trailer: the guns, the new villains who were NOT Handsome Jack, the cool vehicles and monsters, the new characters and their abilities, and of course, the return of the old characters. We’re not just talking about Claptrap and the old Vault Hunters - we also mean the cameo of Rhys, the charming criminal conman who stars in Tales of the Borderlands, now sporting a spiffy mustache. Fans were pretty excited to see him back in the game, but they might be less excited that while he gained a mustache, he’s losing his voice, as Troy Baker, his original voice actor, will not be returning to Gearbox to reprise his role.

Troy Baker is an industry expert who played Joel in The Last of Us and Booker DeWitt in Bioshock Infinite, so he’s mostly known for playing gruff cynical badasses which meant his turn as the more comical Rhys was a pretty big departure for the guy. But in a video captured by Reddit user Josh_J_Anderson, apparently Troy Baker was not asked to return, and he’s feeling rather miffed about it.

But here’s where things get kinda messy, because Randy Pitchford, over on the ol’ Twitter, claims that it was Troy Baker himself who turned down the role:

You’ll have to ask Troy. I was told by the audio director that he turned it down. Fortunately, with how Rhys appears in the game, I don’t think it actually matters at all. You’ll see for yourself when the game comes out and you may disagree with me on that or not.

Of the two, I believe Troy, because Randy Pitchford has a long history of being a bit of a douche and this is the kind of crap I would expect him to pull. But in the end, it doesn’t matter who’s right, because ol’ Randy holds the purse-strings and what he says goes.

So, sucks for you fans.