Ahead of a showing at Comic-Con in San Diego, StarWars.com has revealed the main cast of Star Wars Zero Company, the squad tactics game by ex-Firaxis XCOM vets. The topline for big Star Wars freaks: Dee Bradley Baker and Matt Lanter will be reprising their long-running roles as clone troopers and Anakin Skywalker respectively.
Baker always reminded me of the actors in Elder Scrolls games (like the inimitable Wes Johnson) in the way he elevated the high-volume job of voicing every clone trooper for like, a decade.
It's something you could see becoming rote or workmanlike, but across multiple shows (most notably Dave Filoni's The Clone Wars), Baker put some zip into named clones and one-line mooks alike. His main role in Zero Company will be Trick, one of the game's RPG-like story companions.
Lanter similarly defined Anakin Skywalker in the animated Filoni-verse. When I got to try Zero Company hands-on back in February, I clocked Baker as Trick immediately. The Summer Game Fest reveal that Anakin Skywalker will appear in Zero Company had me wondering if the Chosen One would get a similar treatment.
Elsewhere in the cast, Vic Michaelis of the popular Dropout universe of improv shows is voicing Runa Blask. Ignoring the "Zendaya is Meechee" of all these very Star Wars names for a sec, Runa was one of my favorite characters from my hands-on time: She's an advisor at your base and an insufferable, rude, former Separatist agent who sucks. She rules.
Alex McKenna (Sadie Adler in Red Dead 2), Judy Alice Lee (Melinoë in Hades 2), and D.C. Douglas (Albert Wesker in Resident Evil, Legion in Mass Effect) caught my eye as notable performers from other videogames.
That strong cast is important, because Zero Company is trying to blend some lavish, cinematic storytelling in with its hardcore tactical gameplay. From my hands-on experience, it's looking like a winning combination. We'll know for sure when Zero Company releases on August 27 for a blessed and anachronistic $50 price tag. Until then, you can wishlist it on Steam.
