The voice actor drama around Pharah’s new voice is entering the next round. Now a petition is supposed to reinstate her as an Overwatch voice.
Things are not going smoothly at Overwatch. Just under a week ago, we reported that Pharah’s German voice actor was replaced. In a “Bluepost” on the German Overwatch forum, Blizzard explained that Pharah’s previous voice actress, Ghadah Al-Akel, had been replaced. The reason given was that due to “availability issues or similar unforeseen difficulties,” working with a voice actor sometimes could not be continued.
The catch is: Ghadah Al-Akel stated that she would have loved to continue voicing Pharah, and she is not aware of any reasons why she was replaced. She only learned about it through the community and is accordingly disappointed.
Petition aims to bring Al-Akel back as Pharah
As Buffed now reports, what always happens when “the internet” is not satisfied has been done: a petition on change.org (link to the petition) has been started to reinstate Al-Akel as the voice actress for the German Pharah.
Under the petition, fans describe in some comments why they want the “old Pharah” back, as one user put it:
“The old Pharah voice was always a reason for me to play the game in German, simply because it sounded like an ambitious, self-confident, yet sympathetic woman.”
What is your opinion on this matter? Do you support the petition? Or do you ultimately not care about the voice because you play in English anyway?
Cortyn says: This situation has become quite difficult. While I can understand fans’ excitement, I am more an advocate for the new voice. The new voice is also fitting, and I wouldn’t want an endless back and forth. As for the ultimate reasons for the voice change, to me personally, it is relatively unimportant. It was disrespectful and certainly a mistake if there was never any communication between Blizzard and Al-Akel. Still, ultimately, it is Blizzard’s decision and not that of the community.
