Vetern voice actor Troy Baker wasn’t going to audition for Indiana Jones at all, apparently—because he didn’t think he’d be able to pull it off. Despite that, Baker will be the voice of the famous archaeologist and pulp hero for Machine Games’ sprawling and very large adventure Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
“I originally passed [on the Indiana Jones role] because, truth be told, I was so scared that I would not be able to pull it off. And fortunately, [voice acting director] Tom Keegan saw past my insecurities and encouraged me to put myself on tape for this still,” said Baker in an interview with GamesRadar+.
The rest is archeology, I mean, history: Baker’s going to play Indy, mostly because he realized he’s not trying to be a Harrison Ford impersonator, he’s just trying to be Indiana Jones.
“The beauty of this is that it’s not about ‘can you make a bang-on impression?’, it’s ‘can you help us feel like this is an authentic Indiana Jones?’ Because that’s what the core of all this is: does this feel like it’s an authentic Indiana Jones?,” said Baker.
What’s funny is that Bethesda Game Studios head Todd Howard didn’t think Troy Baker was a good choice for the role—though he obviously came around on casting Baker before the end.
“My favorite part of that story is how Todd Howard, when they originally brought my name to him, rolled his eyes like, ‘No, I’m not putting Troy Baker in my game.’ And I never thought that I would be [in it either],” said Baker.
Troy Baker’s a pretty famous voice actor at this point, especially in video games. He’s Joel in The Last of Us Part 1 and 2, Sam Drake in Uncharted 5, Booker Dewitt in Bioshock, The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins, and many, many other roles. Taking on a storied character like Indiana Jones that’s very closely tied to a particularly famous actor, however, is a new thing for baker.
For more on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, check out the most recent 15 minutes of Nazi-punching tomb raiding action or go read about how, with a face-melting four hours of cutscenes, it’s the biggest game that Machine Games have ever done. Whether it has the most Nazis bonked remains to be seen. (Very, very unlikely.)
