2. Kiefer Sutherland
I'm not sure which enraged fans more; the announcement that David Hayter would not be returning to voice Big Boss/Snake in Metal Gear Solid V, or the reveal that the new voice actor would be none other than Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland. I was, of course, shocked at the news that Hayter would be replaced. I understood that Kojima wanted to take the series in a new direction with this game, and I trusted him enough that his choice for the new actor would be a good one. When it was officially announced that Kiefer would be lending his voice to Big Boss this time, my initial reaction was that of elation. "Combining Jack Bauer with Big Boss?!?! That's freaking awesome!!" Reactions on Twitter and across the interwebs seemed to be about 50/50. Some people loved it, others started petitions to get Kiefer removed and Hayter placed back in the starring role. At E3, we got out first taste of Kiefer, during the trailer which showed Big Boss rescuing Kaz from a camp in Afghanistan. The very second I heard "Kaz... It's me...", I instantly became concerned. Kiefer's voice was the
exact same as Jack Bauer. Same cadence, same tone, same everything. I immediately began to worry that I would not be able to get past the voice that I hear, and lose myself in the experience of MGS V as I have been able to in previous games. This seems to be very similar to how so many have reacted to Ben Affleck being announced as the next Batman. People worry that they won't be able to separate the character from the actor playing it, that they will be watching the movie only thinking, "That's Ben Affleck in a Batman costume" instead of just accepting the character. Recent reports of the gameplay demo for the English version of the Ground Zeroes portion have claimed that Kiefer seems to just be "phoning in" his performance as Big Boss. If this turns out to be true, the game could be ruined because of it. As much as I am worried about Kiefer's performance, there is one thing that worries me above all others...