In the shooter Overwatch , the German voice of the heroine Pharah has been recast with the latest patch. Something went wrong there.
In a Blue Post, the community manager “Ulvareth” wrote that with the patch 1.10/2.09, the German voice of Pharah will be replaced.
They are collaborating worldwide with talented voice actors. New content is constantly coming in that needs to be voiced. There can be difficulties in collaboration because the voices are not always available or other problems arise.
If that happens, they replace the voice with another one and completely revoice the character to maintain consistency. This is supposed to happen now with Pharah.
Pharah Recast
The German voice of Pharah in Overwatch was previously voiced by the actress Ghadah Al-Akel. She has been known as the German voice for actresses Jennifer Lopez and Michelle Rodriguez in the past. Her voice is recognized from film and television (Grey’s Anatomy, Navy CIS).
Al-Akel was beloved by fans as “Pharah” in Overwatch. Since the latest patch, she is voiced by someone else. Overwatch players immediately noticed this when the patch went live on Tuesday evening. Some expressed their displeasure in German Facebook groups.
Then something strange happened. Players posted in the actress’s guestbook saying: “It’s a shame that you no longer voice Pharah. Your work was great.”
Actress Was Not Informed, Considers It Disrespectful
Thereafter, the actress published a statement in her guestbook. She only learned of the recasting of Pharah through comments and messages.
Al-Akel says she was not informed about this. She would have liked to continue voicing Pharah. There was no conflict:
It was neither due to the fee, the collaboration nor to my availability concerning the voice recordings!!
She considers the recasting a “disrespect” towards herself and the fans. The statement from Blizzard surprises her.
We have inquired with Blizzard and will inform you when a statement regarding this matter comes in.
A famous recasting in the English original was the ghost in Destiny. It was said that there were “availability reasons” behind it, as Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage reportedly no longer had time for video game jobs:
