Keith David has been cast as Commander Zavala in ‘Destiny 2’.
The 57-year-old star of more than 300 films – renowned for his booming voice – will take over the role from the late Lance Reddick, who died aged 60 from heart disease in March.
In a blog published on Thursday (10.08.23), developer Bungie confirmed Keith will be the voice of Zavala – but Lance’s existing voice lines in the game will “remain untouched” following the actor’s death.
Keith said: “I am honoured to continue the great work of Lance Reddick as Zavala.
“Lance captured the character’s sense of integrity so wonderfully. It is my intention to continue that work.”
Keith’s film credits include ‘The Thing’, ‘Platoon’ and ‘They Live’, but his voice will already be familiar to gamers as he has worked with Bungie to voice Arbiter in ‘Halo’ and has starred in ‘Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ and the ‘Mass Effect’ series.
Commander Zavala has been a main character in the ‘Destiny’ series since it launched in 2014.
Lance voiced the character until his death, and his final lines for the game were released in June 2023.
The actor was huge fan of playing ‘Destiny’ and following his death Bungie project lead Blake Battle recalled playing the shooter’s ‘Wrath of the Machine’ raid with the star.
He said: “A ragtag group of the Raids and Community teams launched into Wrath with Lance on a weekday night.
“This is when I learned he played ‘Warlock’, which cracked me up. He didn’t want a carry, and he didn’t need one. On every fight he learned a mechanic role.
“The whole run he was kind, sociable and patient… (he was) the kind of person you’d want to add to your friends list to play with again sometime.”