Hayter: Somebody else voicing Snake 'makes me a little ill'

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Ex-Metal Gear Solid voice actor David Hayter has said that he feels “bummed” for not being asked to reprise his role as Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, and that the idea of hearing another person voicing the character “makes [him] a little ill”.

“If it were my choice, I would do this role forever,” Hayter wrote in a message on Twitter. “To hear anyone else’s voice coming from Snake’s battered throat, makes me a little ill, to be honest.

“But the truth is – it’s not my choice,” he continued. “Any and all casting decisions are the sole purview of Hideo Kojima, and Konami itself. And that’s fair.”

Hayter adds that he “didn’t want anybody to think that I was intentionally abandoning them” by not returning for MGS 5, and that he “will miss this job, and this character, very much”.

“I got in touch with someone involved in the production,” he added. “We got together for lunch, and he told me that they ‘wouldn’t be needing me’ on this game. No reason, or explanation was given beyond that.”

News that Hayter wouldn’t be returning to voice Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5 left some fans disappointed, leaving Kojima to explain his absence in an interview with GameTrailers.

“What we’re trying to accomplish is [to] recreate the Metal Gear series,” said Kojima. “It’s a new type of Metal Gear game and we wanted to have this reflected in the voice actor as well.”

He added that he can’t reveal who will be replacing Hayter “just yet”.

Source: Twitter, GameTrailers