Zeratul's Voice Actor

[Brutaxilos]

Okay everyone knows that the original SC had some insane voice acting. With all this interest on Kerrigan and Raynor right now, I'm pretty surprised that no one has brought up Zeratul's voice acting.

Here's a clip of Zeratul in SC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iQ89fr1ROc

Compare it to his new voice in SC2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or_-j...221D9E&index=3

If you asked me, Blizzard just killed Zeratul. Instead of being the dark and powerful warrior he once was he now seems like some old man trying to help some young hero, which totally kills him. I think I read that Zeratul's original voice actor Jack Ritschel or something is dead but I'm not sure. Who else here thinks Zeratul need's some serious voice change?

[Gradius]

I think Zeratul's real VA is James Harper, who is still alive? Anyone confirm/deny?

[Visions of Khas]

I'm actually pretty satisfied with Zeratul's current actor. The novels describe his laughter as "dry autumn leaves", which I think could be attributed to the new voice actor's course whisper of a voice. And of course he's old. He's the Cool Old Guy. This is how he's described in the novels. Moreover, he is described as calculating and harboring a dark past in the manual, something that's only been lightly touched upon in the game so far. Finally, the age added to his voice could be attributed to the weight of guilt he's carrying around up to this point.

@Gradius: I'm not gonna touch that with a ten-foot pole. He's alive, he's dead -- I've heard a wide range of different things. Not even sure Harper IS his actor.

[Brutaxilos]

Hmm I guess that's true but it just seems like hes gotten weaker.

[Brutaxilos]

I think Zeratul's real VA is James Harper, who is still alive? Anyone confirm/deny?

I'm not completely sure but SC wikia says

"Zeratul was voiced by the late Jack Ritschel in StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War.[55]"

I think you may have gotten confused with another voice actor. James Harper sounds extremely familiar. But apparently I'm right cause Chris Metzen said this at Blizzcon 07

A: For the units - 50/50 because some of the units’ voices will be coming back - but because they’re coming back and they’ll look quite similar, we don’t want them to sound exactly the same so they’re the exact same unit. So there might be different voices or sounds to give them a fresh personality, but some of the actors will be returning. No final decisions have been made yet. For the characters - Here Metzen says that guy that did Zeratul and Duke’s voices is deceased - Jack Ritschel. Metzen emphasized that it has been almost ten years these roles were originally cast. Blizzard wants to make sure that the voice still fits with the Kerrigan. Metzen did say that Glynnis Talken had been back in the studio and that she sounded great (Glyniss actually confirmed on her blog that she would be reprising her role as Kerrigan). As for Raynor, while Robert Clotworthy (the original voice of Raynor) has said he’d love to do Raynor’s voice again, Metzen loves a new guy that has come in to the studio and read for Raynor. He says from his, a creative, perspective he wants to get the character right and that this new guy is much closer to what he had originally envisioned for the character. But he does realize that we, as fans, have an emotional attachment to the original voice and they haven’t quite decided what to do on that one. Recording the voices for many of the other characters has even started yet and Blizzard is still debating internally what they’d like to see whether it is a new voice or a returning one for an iconic character.

[Bobo]

Old Zeratul had unique voice "color" we all loved. It's a voice of that actor. New Zeratul - new actor. He may do good or even great job in whole game... But he's simply not our hero Zeratul anymore...
Effects are necessary but they cant help all that much since sound effects are not fundaments to voice acting. Persons are.

To me it's like this (since SC campaigns were deeply dear to me) You can't change your father's voice, even if his voice is irritating... although he may sound [later] like George Clooney he is not the same person, right?) Infant perspective but i cant help my self.

This topic (Zeratul's voice) is certainly a peak of SC2 voice actors problems.
Kerrigan's voice is 2th.

[ArcherofAiur]

Like I said the issue with Kerrigans VA isnt that the new girl is different from the old kerrigan. Its that she sounds worse.

Zeratuls voice actor does sound different from the old version and yes this gives the charector another feel. But the actor still does a great job and I have to admit I like this new Zeratul.

[Gradius]

Brutaxilos - aye, but I heard somewhere that Metzen made a mistake when he said that, which is why nobody knows who the real actor is anymore. Also, IMDB is full of mistakes so nobody has any clue what's going on.

[Hav0x]

All I know is that whoever voiced him in the cinematic is fine with me.

[Aldrius]

I think Metzen was right about Zeratul's voice actor. He sounds a lot like King Terenas' voice from WC3, who apparently died. So they're probably one in the same.

My opinion on the new actor is that he's fine. The material is what's weird. It's very rare that Zeratul has long speeches in the original game, and so far he's had... two. All his dialogue in SC2 so far has been nothing but speeches.