Time for my Voice Actor of the Week.
David Hayter has worked in the voice over industry since the early 90s, making a big impact on the gaming community in the process.
Hayter's most recognized role is undoubtedly Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series. A lot of people are familiar with Snake, even if they don't play the games, but what many may not know is that "Snake" refers to several different characters in the series. While voicing Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, he also voiced Naked Snake, the character who would one day be known as Big Boss, in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
 |
| Solid Snake, with comrade Raiden on Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty |
 |
| Naked Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater |
This quality was further demonstrated when, in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Hayter voiced Naked Snake. Many would argue that compared to that of Solid Snake, the life of Naked Snake was far more tragic. The character spent his years, both as Naked Snake and as Big Boss, experiencing tragedy after tragedy, and while the voice he used for Naked Snake was practically identical to the one for Solid Snake, Hayter's delivery of his lines really sold the intensity of the circumstances Naked Snake found himself in over the decades. Perhaps it's just a case of having gotten used to the character and the voice, but as someone who has played the games multiple times, I have to say that Hayter really showed his mettle in Snake Eater.
Unfortunately, when Kojima Productions was working on the most recent of the Metal Gear Solid games, David Hayter had been replaced by Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. While Sutherland is by no means a bad actor and in fact did a great job playing the character, many a fan found the decision disappointing. I was one of them.
In the original game's English release, Hayter was one of only two actors in the cast whose true name was used in the credits. The other was Doug Stone, the actor who played Psycho Mantis.
The rest of the cast's credits were changed. Below, you can see the characters in the game, followed by their performers' true names and each actor's alias in parentheses:
Solid Snake - David Hayter (David Hayter)
Liquid Snake - Cam Clarke (James Flinders)
Meryl Silverburgh - Debi Mae West (Mae Zalder)
Hal "Otacon" Emmerich - Christopher Randolph (Christopher Fritz)
Col. Roy Campbell - Paul Eiding (Paul Otis)
Mei Ling - Kim Mai Guest (Kim Nguyen)
Gray Fox - Greg Eagles (George Byrd)
Nastasha Romanenko - Renee Raudman (Renee Collette)
Revolver Ocelot - Patric Zimmerman (Patric Laine)
Vulcan Raven - Peter Lurie (Chuck Farley)
Psycho Mantis - Doug Stone (Doug Stone)
Sniper Wolf - Tasia Valenza (Julie Monroe)
Donald Anderson - Greg Eagles (George Byrd)
Kenneth Baker - Allan Lurie (Bert Stewart)
Jim Houseman - William Bassett (Fredrick Bloggs)
Johnny Sasaki - Dean Scofield (Dino Schofield)
Hayter once again voiced Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, a remake of the original game that was for the Nintendo Gamecube. When the game was in production, it was originally planned to replace all of the voice actors except for Hayter in the remake, but rather than that, Hayter gave up part of his salary in order to make it possible for the original cast to return and reprise their roles.
Further, Hayter returned as Snake for the digital graphic novels of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, along with much of the original cast for both games.
Hayter also reprised his role as Solid Snake in a few projects outside the series, including the video game Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where Snake appears as a guest fighter. Snake reappears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, reusing voice clips from Brawl.
Now, with all of this, many probably wonder what else Hayter has done. Well, lots of things, really. He was the voice of Kurama in the original dub of Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie. He was Arsène Lupin III in The Castle of Cagliostro, King Shark on CW's The Flash, and Captain America on Spider-Man: The Animated Series from 1996 to 1997. That's right. Solid Snake was not the first super soldier Hayter brought to life.
What many probably don't know is that Hayter has also worked on some significant movie releases. He wrote the script for the first X-Men movie released by 20th Century Fox, and co-wrote the screenplay for X2, Alan Moore's Watchmen, and The Scorpion King. He made his directorial debut with the movie Wolves in 2014. Recently, he wrote two episodes for the show Warrior Nun on Netflix.
Hayter is a member of the fan community as well, having played and completed all of the Metal Gear Solid games he's appeared in, and being a big fan of comics. The latter might be why the first X-Men movie turned out so well. He was tapped after the success of that movie to do a screenplay for a Black Widow movie, and even has a daughter, who he named Natasha after the title character. Mind you, this was WELL before the MCU.
There are currently rumors circulating that a remake of Metal Gear Solid is in progress. If true, I can think of no one I would rather hear as the voice of Snake than Hayter. And if he's reading this, I think I speak for all MGS fans when I say, I hope he knows that to myself and all his other fans, he will always be Solid Snake. There is no substitute.
To leave a like or comment on the original videos, follow the links below:
You can enjoy Hayter's performance as Solid Snake and Naked Snake through the following links:
Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection is available for purchase from Walmart and Amazon.com, and includes the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. The Legacy Collection is for the PS3, but the HD Collection alone is available for Xbox 360 and can also be found on those sites.
Hayter's episodes of Warrior Nun are also available for streaming on Netflix.
