While most of the reaction to yesterday’s surprise reveal of Doomfist in Overwatch has been wildly positive, with a strong sense of “finally” coming from the community, there were also some hums and drums, and the humdrummiest of them all were those who clamored for Terry Crews to be the voice actor in Overwatch. As we all now know, Crews is not the voice of Doomfist. That role instead went to veteran theatre actor Sahr Ngaujah
It’s hard to really know how this who campaign got started. It seems that Crews just really likes Overwatch and when someone somewhere along the line suggested he should voice Doomfist if and when the elusive hero was finally released, the idea took on a life of its own. For the record, Crews himself has kept it classy in regards to this news, which it seems was also the first time Crews heard of it. The actor took to Twitter to express support for Overwatch and how the hero turned out.
I will always love @PlayOverwatch and everyone at @Blizzard_Ent! #Doomfist is incredible n I’m happy to have had all the fans consideration!
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) July 6, 2017
But that hasn’t stopped fans from being saddened by this development, as fun (and surprisingly mobile) as Doomfist may be. The truth is, though, given what we know about how Terry Crews would play the role and what we now know about how Blizzard imagined Doomfist for Overwatch, the two wouldn’t have been a good pair.
Sure, you can look into Crews many comedic roles in movies like The Longest Yard and White Chicks, or his exceedingly funny role in Brooklyn-Nine-Nine, but you really need look no further than Crews’ own mock audition for Doomfist. For Yahoo eSports, Crews read some faux Doomfist lines mostly as a fun gag, but you can see clearly that what Crews wanted for Doomfist and what Blizzard eventually delivered are miles apart.
I would never want to pigeonhole or typecast an actor, so I won’t say that he is incapable of playing a serious role, despite his penchant for comedy. However, it seems even Crews was actively vying for a more tongue-in-cheek approach. He opens up his mock audition above by saying “I’m the sh**.”
Also, Terry Crews is a funny actor, and he’s also the type of actor who brings his personality to the roles he takes. This isn’t a bad thing – in fact, it’s one of the more enjoyable parts of watching his performances – but it makes him ill-fit for the type of personality Blizzard clearly had in mind for Doomfist in Overwatch.
Contrast these lines and the tone of the performance with what Doomfist actually sounds like and acts like. The real Doomfist is a much more serious, stoic character, with a lot layered underneath a strong voice. See for yourself:
As you can see, it just doesn’t line up. And maybe Crews could have delivered a performance close to what Blizzard wanted for Doomfist, but that’s clearly not what he expected the role to be like. Furthermore, that’s not why we all wanted Terry Crews to take on the role.
