Why Justin Gross won't be returning as Arthas...

[jcf190]

I recently e-mailed Justin Gross, the original voice actor for Prince Arthas and the Lich King (WIII, WC:TFT and the WotLK teaser trailer).

Here's what he had to say.

My original e-mail:

Will you be reprising your role as Arthas in the upcoming Warcraft expansion (Wrath of the Lich King)?

His response:

Unfortunately, no. After I completed my role as Arthas, Blizzard Ent. came back to me to reprise the role but for an embarrassingly low amount of money. The more money they made off of WOW, the less they wanted to pay their actors. So on the advise of my agent, I declined.



But thank you for asking.

[ThatOneDude]

Wow, way to try to fuck a great voice actor over. Blizzard, I've lost even more respect for you -.-.....Why does it seem like Blizzard only cares about making money with WoW? I mean hell, they could fix SO many problems with the subscriptions they get but they never seem to. But hell, if they don't want to give him an average wage for a voice actor I wouldn't blame him. But you'd think Blizzard would stay true to Arthas since the expansion is BASED OFF OF HIM.

I'm sure there is more to the story, but honestly, I don't think they should of let him get away. Unless he was asking for a ridiculous amount of money, but than again, Blizzard came to him -.-......so that's kinda flawed

[Xeranar]

Voice actors =/= face actors

Biiiiig raging difference...If I dug around wikipedia I could find 2-3 names of people who have voiced classic characters or more modern cartoons who all voiced the same character but at different times. The voice actor of Optimus Prime is something special, he's been a voice actor for 30+ years and his closing in on 60 if I remember correctly but he's spent 20+ years voicing the same character, he has some rights to say "hey, I am Optimus prime" even if he didn't write a single line of Optimus prime.

Arathas is a nobody, he was in one game and while he's an intricate piece of the game, don't get me wrong, but the voice actor has no history within WoW or WC beyond doing some voice overs. By the way, unlike a continued cartoon series the most he'd have spoken is probably 200 words...thats including if he's the one speaking during the opening of WLK's cinematic. So to be fair, blizzard had the right to give him some absurdly low figure since it's an absurdly low job in terms of voice acting.

[Elliot]

how do we know what this dude classes as crap pay, he probably asked for more money just cause blizzard earns a killing so they told him where to go.

[Briareos]

Where and how did you get his email? This is fake until proven otherwise. I doubt someone would even want to comment on that. Would they even be able to comment on that?

[Deleted]

Everything needs solid fucking proof these days, if you don't believe him then GTFO and post somewhere else. Simple ye?

[mrfinch]

Why does it seem like Blizzard only cares about making money with WoW?

Believe it or not, Blizzard are a business. So ofcourse their main concern is making money from one of their ventures.

[Groznar]

I don't know about anyone else, but if Blizzard bought the plane ticket and bought me lunch, that's all it would take for me to be a voice actor of someone of such significance in a medium that is seen by "10 million" people.

I really cannot fathom why it would take more than an hour or two to recite all the lines Arthas is going to have.

[Lór]

To be honest. Arthas has no human voice anymore. His voice trembles, I don't think you would notice even a difference. :>

[Groznar]

To be honest. Arthas has no human voice anymore. His voice trembles, I don't think you would notice even a difference. :>

It would have most likely been used in CoT: Stratholme.

[Vamonse]

Well his response seems to be the correct one, no?

I mean look at all this drama, whining and crying on the forums. Seems to have the right effect.

how do we know what this dude classes as crap pay, he probably asked for more money just cause blizzard earns a killing so they told him where to go.

Nothing wrong with asking more if a product sells very good.

who are you to email him, why would he justify a random person with a response? rofl

Why not? So you saying, one can't e-mail well know persons? like they have some sort of higher status than most of us? You stupid or something? They are persons just like you and me. I can e-mail to Bill Clinton for all you could care less. If I get a response, that's entirely a different story. Some people...seriously..

hat's all it would take for me to be a voice actor of someone of such significance in a medium that is seen by "10 million" people.

And when the medium dies, then what? (Yes, when not if, because WoW will become obsolete. It's just a question of time). Nobody will remember your voice acting 50 years from now. So in retrospect you wasted a perfect opportunity to earn some money for some 15 min. of "Fame".

[Vamonse]

ops...

[Rand]

The simple anser would probably be along the lines that they wanted him to say about 12 sentances in total and toss him a few grand for an hours work.... He says "I'm Arthas! I deserve more! I want over $10,000! for these twelve lines." Hence he thinks it's stupidly low pay.

[Selenti]

The simple anser would probably be along the lines that they wanted him to say about 12 sentances in total and toss him a few grand for an hours work.... He says "I'm Arthas! I deserve more! I want over $10,000! for these twelve lines." Hence he thinks it's stupidly low pay.

Nah, it was probably more like $500, and he wanted 1,000$ or whatever.

Voice acting isn't like film acting, if he says stupidly low, he probably means stupidly low.

[spade312]

Can we get some sort of screenpic of the event? I would just like to see how it went down.

[Rand]

Nah, it was probably more like $500, and he wanted 1,000$ or whatever.

Voice acting isn't like film acting, if he says stupidly low, he probably means stupidly low.

Stupidly low is dependant on his ego and how much he thinks he's worth or how much he thinks he could squeeze out of a company.

[neh0e]

Wow, way to try to fuck a great voice actor over. Blizzard, I've lost even more respect for you -.-.....Why does it seem like Blizzard only cares about making money with WoW? I mean hell, they could fix SO many problems with the subscriptions they get but they never seem to. But hell, if they don't want to give him an average wage for a voice actor I wouldn't blame him. But you'd think Blizzard would stay true to Arthas since the expansion is BASED OFF OF HIM.

I'm sure there is more to the story, but honestly, I don't think they should of let him get away. Unless he was asking for a ridiculous amount of money, but than again, Blizzard came to him -.-......so that's kinda flawed

anyone business on this planet only care about making money, would you work your behind off and be happy not to get paid or get paid way less then the amount of time and effort you put in,

the answer to your questionis no.

[jcf190]

For those of you screaming "fake", you can e-mail Justin yourself on his personal website.

http://www.justingross.com/

[neh0e]

If anything this Justin is greedy they probably offered him a flat rate the same as before or similar money to what he usually recieves for his kind of work

and just because blizzard are worth abit of money now he tried to hold out for more money thinking they could give him more then he decieves for his job and time and was suprised to be turned down because he wanted more then his job is worth.

justin is greedy blizzard has good principes.

gg

[grug09]

just going to his site, and without being disrespectful, it doesn't exactly make him look like he is in a position to be turning anyone one down for a job, its quite simple and i honestly wasn't impressed (if i were looking for artistic talent for my product)

Still he did a solid job in WC3, but honestly, its not like it was a special performance that im going to be missing to any effect.