Where's Thrall?

[Justpassing]

Thrall was put up as one of the "prominent characters of BFA" at the reveal, and there was this whole business with him and Vol'jin's ashes or something... Was all that scrapped or am I out of the loop?

[Maljinwo]

Vol'jin's ashes are being handled by the Darkspear.

Thrall is probably still crying over something

[Justpassing]

Vol'jin's ashes are being handled by the Darkspear.

Thrall is probably still crying over something

I never thought I'd say this after Dragon Soul but I miss Thrall

[AnonEntity]

Thrall should die in a fire, obviously they found no place for a rather peaceful and negotiating character in BfA. It's all Sylvanas going quite aggro and Anduin trying to negotiate, before they all go worst war between Horde and Alliance since the Warcraft rts games.

So yeah, I would not be surprised if they let him die. It's kinda out of character that he lets things escalate like that.

[Syegfryed]

Suffering by crippling depression somewhere, washing child clothes

[Cosmic Janitor]

Officially, in lore, soul searching.

In reality he is retired along with Metzen, as that was the guy that wrote and voiced him. The current devs probably don't want to mess with his character out of respect.

[EbaumsTipster]

He either got cut from the Vol'jin story in 8.0, or he will be playing a part in 8.1

I'm assuming that Talanji got his role in the Vol'jin story.

[Dalheim]

Officially, in lore, soul searching.

In reality he is retired along with Metzen, as that was the guy that wrote and voiced him. The current devs probably don't want to mess with his character out of respect.

Metzen has already said he'll continue voicing Thrall though, so that should be no problem.

[Destinas]

Officially, in lore, soul searching.

In reality he is retired along with Metzen, as that was the guy that wrote and voiced him. The current devs probably don't want to mess with his character out of respect.

He said he would continue to voice Thrall, even after retirement.

https://twitter.com/ChrisMetzen/stat...64770996912128

Clearly Metzen doesn't mind if they use him more, in that case. So, he could still show up in BfA.

[Venziir]

Shortly after the Blizzcon BFA announcement, that showed Thrall, Metzen was hospitalized for some serious back surgery which he's still recovering from. So that's your explanation really

[Cosmic Janitor]

He said he would continue to voice Thrall, even after retirement.

https://twitter.com/ChrisMetzen/stat...64770996912128

Clearly Metzen doesn't mind if they use him more, in that case. So, he could still show up in BfA.

I imagine that is still vastly different to have him come in compared to just have him walk down the hallway from his office. There is also that as an author you probably don't want to use someone elses character, especially in an edgelord story like BfA. When you then have someone come in to read lines he might not agree with would be kinda shitty. I have often offered to help out with previous projects in my job as well once I moved on to another, in case of problems arising, but I very rarely get taken up on it, so while I'm sure Metzen offered, it is probably easier to just have another character do something and have him voiced by the janitor.

Edit:

Shortly after the Blizzcon BFA announcement, that showed Thrall, Metzen was hospitalized for some serious back surgery which he's still recovering from. So that's your explanation really

If that is true then that would also explain why the fast tracked Malfurion out of the story as we've seen from the datamined broardcast texts.

[beanman12345]

I miss Thrall being a central figure in the story, it's a shame they didn't include him in BfA like they led us to believe.

[Blysto]

I kinda miss thrall tbh. I like his character

[vilememory]

Sylvanas kills off Thrall. Mark my words.

[Daedius]

Making out with the Earth Mother;



So sexy!

[Maljinwo]

Thrall should've died in the Broken Shore

[Destinas]

I imagine that is still vastly different to have him come in compared to just have him walk down the hallway from his office. There is also that as an author you probably don't want to use someone elses character, especially in an edgelord story like BfA. When you then have someone come in to read lines he might not agree with would be kinda shitty. I have often offered to help out with previous projects in my job as well once I moved on to another, in case of problems arising, but I very rarely get taken up on it, so while I'm sure Metzen offered, it is probably easier to just have another character do something and have him voiced by the janitor.

Oh I agree that there should be a level of respect, and I think that Blizzard has that to an extent. However, using and killing off characters that other people have created is something that Blizzard does often often in their writing.

Richard Knaak created characters like Krasus/Korialstrasz, Rhonin, and Trag Highmountain. Krasus and Rhonin died in books that were written by Christie Golden, and Trag was stated to have "taken an arrow to the knee" in an Ask CDev (though, he showed up in Acherus in Legion).

Thrall has been a major character in Warcraft since WC3. Most of Metzen's created/voiced characters have been killed off before and leading up to his retirement (Ragnaros, Nefarian, Varian, Zul'jin, and various other smaller roles), with a few voices being replaced by other voice actors in recent expansions (Vol'jin and Rexxar). Thrall and Hakkar the Soulflayer are the only ones with future stories left - and he created far, far more characters during his time in Blizzard that are being used without him even now.

Thrall was left purposefully open-ended in Legion with the Doomhammer going to players - they then showed that he would show up in BfA - shown here. On top of the fact that Metzen wants to continue to voice Thrall, he has also complemented his former coworkers for what they've done in Legion:

Well, recovery has given me ample Legion time. This thing is a masterpiece. This is the most fun I’ve had with endgame EVER. One raid to go!

https://twitter.com/ChrisMetzen/stat...67235215372288

Which, some of it was not his creation:

it really is. I mean, I was in on the big broad stuff when we started - but seeing it now is like new. The detail and care.......

https://twitter.com/ChrisMetzen/stat...72999766147073

And it seems he's looking forward to BfA:

Ok. Got my horsey. I’m ready for Battle of Azeroth!!!!!!

https://twitter.com/ChrisMetzen/stat...54175445549057

tldr - if they want to use Thrall, they will, since it seems Metzen has already given them his blessing. However, they do seem to be moving a bit away from him (perhaps due to spinal surgery recovery), making other orcs important, even making his AU gender-bent counterpart the leader of the Mag'har.

[Techno-Druid]

I miss Thrall being a central figure in the story, it's a shame they didn't include him in BfA like they led us to believe.

Thrall > Sylvanas

[Saverem]

The most ACCURATE answer is: Thrall isn't around because Chris Metzen isn't around.


Thrall is his closest and dearest WoW creation and Chris personally voices him. Less Chris = less Thrall.

[clevin]

The funny thing is that one reason people keep saying that they can't kill Sylvanas is that the Horde would have no good candidate for Warchief. Well then... here's Thrall!