I love a “what could’ve been” story. Today’s concerns Starfield’s silent galactic problem solver of a protagonist and how they could’ve been voiced by at least two actors who now play other prominent roles in the game.

For much of Starfield’s development, Bethesda intended to give the player character a voice, like it did in its previous open-world RPG, Fallout 4. However, the dev team ultimately changed its mind, opting for a (mostly) silent protagonist so that the galactic-scale environment could breathe a bit more. Bethesda also reportedly wanted to avoid giving the character “too specific” of a voice. Fallout 4’s voiced protagonists also weren’t a universal hit, with many players likely preferring a silent Bethesda protagonist as its games have traditionally featured. But though we knew Bethesda was originally set on casting an actor to voice Starfield’s protagonist, we didn’t know who that might’ve been. Turns out, one of the actors is Elias Toufexis, voice of Deus Ex prequel series’ protagonist Adam Jensen, known to Starfield players as Sam Coe. The other was Cissy Jones, perhaps best known for playing Delilah in Firewatch, who now voices Andreja in Starfield.

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In a post on X (formerly Twi—ugh, I can’t do this anymore), voice actor Elias Toufexis spilled the beans on early Starfield casting decisions, indicating that he and Jones were originally going to star as the player’s protagonist:

Yeah, it’s true. [Cissy Jones] and I were originally the player voices in Starfield. We worked for months.

When [Bethesda] decided the player should be voiceless they gave Cissy and me Andreja and Sam Coe.

Games Never do this. Once you’re out you’re out.

Good on Bethesda.

Toufexis also recently voiced discomfort over Bethesda owner Microsoft’s moves toward including AI voices in games. “I’ve said it for years now,” Toufexis said in a post on X, “if you want to start a voice-acting career, don’t bother. All those jobs of nameless background NPCs that gave us all our start in the industry…they’re all going away.”