Matthew Mercer has revealed that he is the voice of Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
He shared this message on Twitter:
“I just got the go-ahead from Nintendo, so I can FINALLY announce my absolute pleasure to be voicing Ganondorf in the Legend of #Zelda : #TearsoftheKingdom.
An immense honor that I have thrown myself into doing justice.
I have been an immense Legend of Zelda fan since I was a child, and Ganondorf has been one of my favorite antagonists… to the point where I portrayed this green-skinned menace for my webseries over a decade ago!
Many of you know the weight of expectation on my shoulders for this, and I hope to do you proud. A huge thank you to @NintendoAmerica @Nintendo and the entire Tears of the Kingdom team for entrusting me with such a badass. <3”
If you were curious, Mercer was alluding to a brief period when he produced a fan web parody series called There Will Be Brawl. This was a Super Smash Bros parody, where he was the actor playing Ganondorf, but he also voiced Meta Knight.
But don’t let that fool you. This was really an anecdote to Mercer’s greater voice acting career. He has played some of the most popular characters in video games, including Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil, Yusuke Kitagawa in Persona, Cole Cassidy in Overwatch, Chrom in Fire Emblem, Spyro for Skylanders, Fei Long for Street Fighter 4, and of course, most important of them all, Mighty No. 1 Pyrogen for Mighty No. 9.
He’s also taken on various major and minor roles in a variety of shows and movies. While his voice acting career in video games goes as far back as 2004, in 2012 he started taking roles like Levi Ackerman in Attack on Titan, Trafalgar Law in One Piece, Jotaro Kujo in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Tygra in ThunderCats, Superman in DC Super Friends, Hermes in Blood of Zeus, and the lead role in Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan – Demon Capital.
So there’s no doubt that this is a big pop culture fan taking on a dream role, but one that he’s more than qualified for.
It also means Matthew knows the major story spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. While it’s unlikely he’ll spoil anything Nintendo doesn’t want anyone to know, he just might drop a few officially approved teasers and spoilers here and there.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be released on May 12, 2023, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.
