New Voice Lines for Old Survivors?

I’ve seen a lot of people asking for older, original Characters to get voice lines(for example first to Dwight, Claudette, Meg and Jake), and I also want this… But I think it’s important to realize certain things with that:

If BHVR did do this, they’d definitely rehaul a lot, or at least a few, of Character’s entire voice banks instead of just the dialogue. Mostly for consistency between the screams and the dialogue AND to bring it up to current standards, a lot of those voices are 6-10 years old now and using certain people they couldn’t use now.

“Why can’t BHVR just bring back the original voice actors”

Before 2021, all character voices in the game (with only one exception) were done by BHVR employees. This was the easiest route for them at the time. After 2021 (beginning with Yun-Jin and Trickster), they were REQUIRED by voice actor guilds to hire paid, professional talents and were prohibited from using their own employees for voice work. This was to make sure talents were offered opportunities and also so that BHVR couldn’t skimp out on it. They could not utilize these employees for new voice lines even if they wanted to. While some of them no longer work with BHVR, they are still not professional voice actors either.

There are also many cases where these employees only voiced the Character because they specifically didn’t speak. They wouldn’t be able to speak accurately like the Character otherwise, such as Feng Min’s actress not knowing Chinese or David’s lacking an accent.

“Why can’t BHVR just add new dialogue but keep the screams?”

It seems like BHVR wants consistency between the dialogue and the screams, especially after Rick Grimes and Daryl Dixon’s voices were criticized greatly for sounding so different from the dialogue. This was the first and only time that has happened, and the next TWD Character (Maggie) was voiced fully by the original actress. A better example is Jonathan Byers, who had a professional, non-BHVR employee voice actor already yet was still replaced fully when they gave him dialogue. They hired a new voice actor for him because they specifically scouted for a soundalike. Then with concerns for consistency, updated his entire bank.

There are definitely cases now where they have the ability to work with the same, professional voice artists that voiced Characters released 2021 and on.

As mentioned before, The Trickster and Yun-Jin Lee are voiced by professional, KOREAN voice artists. They could 100% work with these same people to give accurate, and consistent dialogue without having to update screams or the such.

Though it is still not guaranteed that many of them wouldn’t need new voice artists for best result. Haddie’s actress doesn’t speak French, Vittorio’s actor doesn’t speak Italian, etc.

In the end, it’s entirely up to BHVR. Some of these screams are iconic! I can see them keeping at least a few just for posterity. This is also a huge “what if” rambling, because we still aren’t even sure BHVR cares enough to add these things! Hoping we can at least see the beginning of it with this Chapter and a possible chance at added Yun-Jin dialogue.