The Last Of Us 2 is a star-studded video game full of incredibly talented and famous voice actors, likeness models, and motion-cap actors. The performance from everyone involved is very impressive and it's actually easy to lose track of the fact that you may know some of these faces and voices from lots of other games, movies, TV shows, or even Dungeons and Dragons live plays... The connection between Naughty Dog and Critical Role is no secret with Ashley Johnson playing Ellie in both TLOU games and Laura Bailey portraying Nadine in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and now returning to take on the role of Abby this time around. That's just the tip of the iceberg though.
The Last of Us 2 features a ton of voiced characters and a ton of extra background actors who help populate the game's settings. Although the core cast of characters is fairly small, the world is full of people who providing chit chat in the background. From the stand-ins around the settlement before Ellie heads off on her quest, to the dozens of voiced Wolf's roaming Seattle, to the vicious Rattlers in Santa Barbara - there's a whole lot of voices in this massive AAA game. To help fill some of those minor background roles, a few other familiar faces from Critical Role stepped into the studio to help bring the world to life.
For those who are unaware, Critical Role is a very popular Dungeons and Dragons liveplay. The show features a cast of successful voice actors (including the voice of Illidan Stormrage from World of Warcraft) who all play D&D together with Matt Mercer taking on the role of dungeon master. The show blew up in popularity and is now a full-blown network of entertainment including spin-off shows, a talk show, and lots of one-shots with guest players and other dungeon masters. The core cast of players have quite a following, but even still, it's easy to overthink their presence in the game thanks to how subtle and minor some of them are.
Before detailing each appearance, consider this a final spoiler warning.
Ashley Johnson / Ellie
Let's start with the obvious one. Ashley Johnson obviously returns to take on the role of Ellie once again. She is the central character of The Last of Us 2 and the playable protagonist for the majority of the game (although the second act features a different CR actor as the main playable character).
Laura Bailey / Abby
Anyone who has been following The Last of Us 2 news since the game launched should be aware that Laura Bailey portrays the game's second playable character: Abby. This character has caused some controversy thanks to some fans of the franchise being angry about narrative choices in the game and the lose of a central character from the first game.
Matthew Mercer /Prison Leader and additional voices
Dungeon Master Matt Mercer makes an appearance as the prison leader near the end of the game as Ellie breaks out a group of captives at the Rattler camp. In addition, Matt is listed as providing "additional voices" so is likely responsible for at least some of the background chatter that can be heard from various NPCs around the game's world.
Travis Willingham / Large Rattler and additional voices
Travis, better known as Fjord to Critters, is the voice behind one of the villains introduces late in TLOU2. He is credited as Large Rattler, which means that players get a chance to take him down once they head to Santa Barbara as Ellie for her final acts of revenge. Like Mercer, Travis is also credited as additional voices, so he likely has multiple other lines of dialogue that are hidden around Seattle, Santa Barbara, or the other locations.
Liam O'Brien, Sam Riegel, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe / Additional voices
Although he does not get credited as a named character, Caleb the Wizard (Liam O'Brian) is also credited as providing additional voices throughout the game. In time, it seems likely that Critters will help identify exactly when those lines pop up. The same is true for Sam, Taliesin Jaffe, and Marisha who are also credited with additional voice work in the game, but no named characters.
That means that every member of the core Critical Role cast can be heard at some point throughout The Last of Us 2. That's not unsurprising considering the high quality of talent on the show and the large number of voice actors needed to populate a world has detailed as those that can found Naughty Dog games. Even though TLOU2 takes place in the post apocalypse, there are still plenty of voices needed thanks to the hordes of NPC Scars, Wolves, and Rattlers that are lurking around every corner for Ellie (and sometimes Abby) to stealth around or go head to head against in the game's savage combat.
Critical Role is back after a lengthy pandemic hiatus and the cast of players have all been able to return to the table and continue the story of the Mighty Nein. Fans can also keep up with what the team worked on over the hiatus by watching the hilarious Narrative Telephone segments on the CR YouTube channel.
Be sure to keep an eye out here for more The Last of Us news, updates, theories, and guides. Until then, look for the light.
The Last of Us 2 is available now for PS4. Critical Role campaign two airs Thursday nights on Twitch and is available on YouTube or in podcast form.