The upcoming Lego Horizon Adventures, a spin-off of the main Horizon franchise, is recasting the character of Sylens after the death of actor Lance Reddick in 2023.
In March 2023, Reddick died suddenly in Los Angeles at the age of 60. Reddick had appeared in The Wire, Fringe, Lost, Oz, and John Wick, but in 2014 he began voicing Commander Zavala in Destiny and developed a whole new group of fans. In 2017, he starred as Sylens, a major character in the PlayStation-exclusive open-world game Horizon Zero Dawn, returning to the role in the sequel, 2022’s Horizon: Forbidden West. Sadly, Reddick won’t be playing Sylens in Lego Horizon Adventures, the Lego reimagining of the first game in the series launching on PS5, Switch, and PC next month.
Speaking to IGN, Lucas Bolt, a senior world artist at Horizon developer Guerrilla Games, said that Reddick is “deeply missed” by the studio and the community. Bolt confirmed that Sylens does still appear in the Lego spin-off but performed by a new, yet-to-be-announced actor.
“[Reddick] wonderfully portrayed the essential character of Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. The character of Sylens does appear in LEGO Horizon Adventures, and we will introduce the new actor at a later date,” said Bolt. “Hearing the voices of other original actors including Ashly Burch as Aloy, JB Blanc as Rost, John Macmillan as Varl and John Hopkins as Erend has really brought back the tone of comradery found in the original game.”
It’s inevitable, of course, that future Horizon games won’t continue to feature Reddick, but it’s still sad that the actor’s one-of-a-kind voice won’t be heard in Lego Horizon Adventures. I had wondered if Guerrilla Games would use old voice lines from past games for Sylens in this re-imagining, but that isn’t the case.
I’m curious if this new actor voicing Sylens in Lego Horizon Adventures will carry on the role in future Horizon games. I also wonder if Sylens’ face will be changed for those games, as he was designed to look like the late Lance Reddick.
For Destiny 2, Bungie announced in August 2023 that Keith David was stepping in to take over Reddick’s Zavala in the MMO space shooter. “I am honored to continue the great work of Lance Reddick as Zavala. Lance captured the character’s sense of integrity so wonderfully,” David said. “It is my intention to continue that work.”
Lego Horizon Adventures arrives on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 14.
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