Phantom Blade Zero Protagonist Voice Actor Revealed as Sonic the Hedgehog's Roger Craig Smith

In the trailers leading up to launch, Phantom Blade Zero protagonist Soul was voiced by up-and-coming actor Jay Maksenuk, best known for playing V in Once Human. As the game moved into release, however, he was replaced.

Now Roger Craig Smith — best known as Sonic the Hedgehog, Ezio Auditore, Batman, and Chris Redfield — plays the role. You can check out the new performance in the Phantom Blade Zero launch trailer below.

The actor is joined by Mu Xiaokui actor Maggie Robertson, who played Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil 7. Elsewhere in the cast, Donnie Yen served as a key creative consultant and stars as the character Mó Yuan (Soul's father) through full facial, voice, and motion capture.

Maksenuk originally posted about landing the role on Reddit and was listed as the game’s protagonist on IMDb. However, the Reddit post has since been deleted and IMDb no longer lists Phantom Blade Zero among the actor’s credits. IGN has asked Maksenuk and Smith for comment.

Phantom Blade Zero looks like a smash hit already. It's ahead of eternal Steam big hitters PUBG and Dota 2 by peak concurrent players on Valve's platform, and behind only Counter-Strike 2 as the most-played game. But it's worth noting that the total peak player count will be even higher, given Phantom Blade Zero is also out on PS5 (Sony does not make player numbers public). It's also the best-selling game on Steam by revenue, ahead of Activision Modern Warfare 4, Aion 2, and Probably Stolen, a Cyberpunk shopkeeper sim that's going viral.

IGN's Phantom Blade Zero review returned a 9/10. We said: "Phantom Blade Zero is an unbelievably smooth action game filled with memorable boss fights, compelling combat, and limitless swagger."

Before you step into the Phantom World, we’ve put together a helpful list of Things Phantom Blade Zero Doesn’t Tell You. We’ve also got a step-by-step Phantom Blade Zero Walkthrough in progress, plus guides for the game’s Weapons, Accessories, and Phantom Edges.