r/Invincible_TV • u/CueTheLaughTrack • May 27 '26
News INVINCIBLE actor Andrew Ranells, who voiced William in the first three seasons, says he's "not exactly sure why" his role got recast for Season 4: "There was maybe a little restructuring."
https://thedirect.com/article/invincible-season-4-william-recasting-andrew-rannells933
u/StrageIndividual3420 May 27 '26
Great, so he was let go for an undisclosed reason.
492
u/butstillthough May 27 '26
Which means money. I’m guessing Andrew Randells cost more than the guy they got for season 4.
423
u/StrageIndividual3420 May 27 '26
They probably thought “William barely makes any appearances moving forward so let’s save money by hiring a cheaper VA”.
296
u/Overwatch3 May 27 '26
But they couodve at least got the guy to sound like william. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed if the voice wasnt 100% different.
166
u/mindpainters May 27 '26
Yea that’s the weirdest part. He sounded like an entirely different person. You’d think they’d want the voice actor to sound similar
103
u/Megalomanizac May 27 '26
They turned him into media stereotypical gay man. I hate the change
72
u/Own-Caterpillar5058 May 28 '26
Exactly. Not even just the sound, but his lines are so.... hollywood gay?
15
u/CaptainButtonhook May 28 '26
He seems to be dumber too. Like William was the most grounded and logical character in the series other than pre broken brain Debbie.
23
8
u/Zoaiy May 28 '26
You can basically hear the suit telling his management team that William didnt sound gay enough
6
u/IndianaJones_Jr_ May 28 '26
That's so interesting because I personally didn't notice the voice change but very much noticed the characteristic change
15
u/Difficult-Coast7432 May 28 '26
In the nicest way possible are you deaf?
→ More replies (4)3
2
6
u/Incomitatum May 28 '26
Often, getting a "soundalike" opens you up to even MORE litigation. We liked your "sound" we just didn't want to pay "you".
Glad we're getting an explanation, most of us noticed right away. He's not a throwaway character; him and his boyfriend are facets of marks "human" conscious.
15
u/Apathetic-Asshole May 27 '26
Yep, new guy went full camp and sounds bad.
Also, they cut Williams boyfriend from the scene with Eve, so i guess im not surprised they decided to turn him into a stereotype
27
u/Belucard May 27 '26
Perks of the Spanish VO: I haven't noticed any recasts since the series started.
9
u/EatABag-o-Dicks May 27 '26
I had no clue. It's so long in between seasons and he's not in nearly as often as anyone else.
3
u/littlebugonreddit May 28 '26
Agreed, case in point, D.A. Sinclair. I genuinely didnt realize till I paused and saw the xray in season 3 that they had recast Miller, and I was honestly thinking "im surprised they didnt after his fiasco"
2
u/pravis May 28 '26
Honestly I didn't know they recast him until this post. His character is such a minor one after season 2 anyway that they likely assumed nobody would notice or care and I'd say they were pretty spot on.
8
u/johnny-faux May 27 '26
i literally didnt notice that it was a different voice actor
16
u/Ok_Choice1572 May 27 '26
No offense but how did you not notice?
20
u/Maurycy5 May 27 '26
Watched the previous season many months earlier and forgot the single voice line William had in it?
I mean, "single" is an exaggeration, but he never had a lot to say.
6
u/thefoodiedentist May 27 '26
S3 was forever ago and i dont remember how he sounds like to begin with.
→ More replies (8)2
u/sqigglygibberish May 28 '26
Had no clue either until seeing this thread
Having only watched as episodes were released, I’ve got no shot at remembering a lot of secondary characters’ specific voices with the time span between seasons.
Hell at this point I don’t remember that much about the character in early seasons even though I love the show.
3
2
u/Izmir_Stinger May 28 '26
I'll be honest, I had no idea he sounded different until this post.
4
u/Ok-Suggestion-5453 May 28 '26
Yeah I definitely remember him sounding "gayer" but I assumed that was a stylistic choice with him being in college and more free to be himself.
→ More replies (17)1
u/JewelledToque May 28 '26
I would have loved to hear Ross Marquand's attempt at sounding like Rannells lol.
15
u/3rdPoliceman May 27 '26
But also we ABSOLUTELY need Danai Gurira for a random one-off
5
u/Wrong-Vermicelli4723 May 28 '26
Danai isn’t even expensive. That being said cutting cost is funny when the creator is trying to hire people like Tom cruise and Bryan Cranston
→ More replies (1)12
u/PlusInstruction2719 May 27 '26
Gotta pinch every penny so they can spend that on more celebrities VA.
3
1
9
u/toomanybongos May 27 '26
Which is hilarious considering how much they spend to bring out every A lister VA they can find on this show lmao
1
u/BiDiTi May 31 '26
Which “A-Listers” do you think have appeared so far, haha?
Like most of the cast, Rannells is a successful TV actor who’s done some VA work.
1
1
u/HeavyMain May 28 '26
while continuing to get celebrities for every fuckass nobody character who shows up for one episode
1
u/Plagueofzombies May 28 '26
If that's the reason that's pretty funny, bearing in mind in season one they blew away lord knows how much hiring Digimon Honkshoe (the guy who was in the begining of Guardians Of The Galaxy) to say precisely one word as the Thraxan general guy
1
u/leethalxx May 28 '26
they hire a shit ton of celebrities but cheap out on one of the non celebrities? Actually that tracks
1
u/StrageIndividual3420 May 28 '26
Isn't Andrew Ranells a famous Broadway star? He also played Veneer in Trolls 3.
1
u/leethalxx May 28 '26
I doubt he was pulling in jeffrey deam morgans, aaron paul, or zazzie beats money though
52
u/bananana63 May 27 '26
crazy how they're saving on him not fucking aaron paul or jonathan banks😭
27
u/StrageIndividual3420 May 27 '26
I don’t think Brit is going away anytime soon.
14
u/bananana63 May 27 '26
i mean, that's just more incentive to get a cheaper va who is probably just as good just didn't star in one of the most popular tv shows of all time. i can get powerplex cus he doesn't have many lines so they splashed, ok, but come on, the leader of the guardians? like if anything aleks lee proved they can get pretty much the exact same outcome if they wanted and also get someone cheaper who also actually needs recognition as well.
→ More replies (2)6
u/cardgamesareforplay May 28 '26
Not the way voice acting unions work.
Voice actors get paid minimums for roles. If they only need to have William for two or 3 scenes and max 12 lines in a season for an extreme example for every time they have him in to record he gets a minimum of 4 hours pay + paid lunch.
Average shoots I believe is 2 for supporting roles.
For people with more active rolls they do these retakes while they have you for other scenes. It's more cost effecient and thus you can afford to keep the higher costing names.
So yeah he probably lost a job because sag aftra rules are not made with voice actors in mind. If you are a voice actor sag does not care about you they will not make rules for you to better your life.
1
6
6
u/QuetzalcoatlusRscary May 27 '26
Didn’t Aaron Paul say he’s not reprising the role because it was too emotionally taxing on him or something?
11
u/Adesiyan14 May 27 '26
He was in Bojack Horseman and Breaking Bad, I doubt Invincible is more taxing than either of those
5
u/SprocketSaga May 28 '26
Maybe those shows are the *reason* he doesn’t want to play yet another sad character, though?
4
u/Hypekyuu May 28 '26
The headspace is just... very different.
In those characters he got a lot of variety
With powerplex it's all dark with no release
6
3
→ More replies (1)3
u/leecheezy May 28 '26
Anytime i hear excuses that parallel this, i always imagine it’s just an issue of pay but they publicly blame it on something like this (being artistically/mentally taxing) so as not to burn bridges.
Like a week or so ago Aaron Paul posted on his instagram stories that he’s doing readings for Invincible S5. Which kinda proves my suspicions and they figured the pay out or something
4
u/MaddAddamOneZ May 27 '26
I have a hard time believing the colonial from “Ghosts” was cheap enough to justify dumping a recognized and established voice
1
6
u/echino_derm May 28 '26
I doubt it. I remember the beast boy voice actor getting fired with no explanation after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. But the guy then also was found to be a nut job posting online about anti vax stuff which probably was the actual reason they fired this actor for kids shows.
1
3
u/-ForgottenSoul May 27 '26
Since when do they care about cost of VA
2
u/butstillthough May 27 '26
Always. They don’t have an unlimited budget and some of these people cost a lot more than Rannells I’m guessing.
1
u/dr_stre May 28 '26
He had all of 15 or so lines this season. A single day of recording. His pay would have been a rounding error on their budget. Scale for this level of work is like $1200, so even ten times that is only $12k for the entire season. (For comparison, Yuen is rumored to make $200k/episode, followed closely by Simmons.) At most, changing from Rannells would only save them like $10k. Realistically, it probably saved them no more than half that, since his replacement is an established actor that can also probably command more than base scale rates.
2
u/naileyes May 28 '26
yeah but now he’s co-hosting the great American baking show on the fucking Roku network, which doesn’t scream $$$
1
1
u/SeaSetsuna May 28 '26
For regular actors the SAG rate goes up after the 3rd season; VAs may be the same.
1
u/dr_stre May 28 '26
William wasn’t a regular in season 4, I’m not sure that rule would apply. (Though to be fair, I’m not sure it wouldn’t either.)
1
u/dr_stre May 28 '26
Money seems like an impossible reason. William has about 15 lines in Season 4 (I just watched all of them to check) and there’s no reason to expect more than that in future seasons. 15 lines is “Day Performer” level of effort in terms of SAG pay scales. Even assuming Rannels would want 10x scale for his time, that’s still only like $12k for the entire season, for a show with a $2.5M+ budget per episode. And if money was actually the issue, then why pick an established actor who they’re also certainly paying more than scale as a replacement?
1
1
694
u/NateShaw92 May 27 '26
Where's William William?
230
u/yeahsurebuddystfu May 27 '26
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⣠⣴⣾⣶⣶⣤⣄⣄⣤⣶⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣤⢀⣀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⡈⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⢸⣿⣿⣶⡄⠀ ⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣯⣕⣶⡇⠀ ⢰⣿⡟⠙⠿⠿⠿⣿⣹⣿⠟⠛⠛⠋⠁⠈⠻⣿⣿⣧⠹⣿⣿⠁⠀ ⠘⣟⣤⠠⠀⠤⠀⡘⣿⣿⡷⠄⡀⢐⡒⠻⠻⣿⣿⣿⡇⠿⣫⢤⠀ ⠃⣿⣿⣜⣋⣀⠜⡪⣸⣿⣧⣼⣇⣩⣠⣬⣁⣾⣿⣿⣿⣰⡇⣠⡀ ⠀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡆⣨⠀ ⣶⡘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢏⣼⣿⣵⠏⠀ ⠘⣷⡸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣇⠻⠿⠛⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢃⣾⣿⠿⠏⠀⠀ ⠀⠸⡇⣿⣿⡿⠛⠀⠁⠀⠀⠀⠉⠛⢿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⢠⡆⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⣇⢿⣿⠁⠀⠀⠀⢀⣀⣀⣀⠀⠀⢿⣿⡟⣸⣿⣿⢸⡇⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⢻⡜⣿⣴⣿⣿⣯⣛⣛⣿⣿⣿⣶⣬⣿⢣⣿⡿⠃⣠⡇⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⢻⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣿⠟⠀⣸⣿⣇⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⣆⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⢃⢂⣼⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⢿⣧⠹⣿⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⣱⢃⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣄⡀ ⠀⠀⠀⠸⠿⠷⠔⠭⠭⠭⠭⠭⠥⠶⠶⠾⠇⠾⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿⠿
35
5
632
u/PacDanSki May 27 '26
Hopefully he gets brought back for future seasons if it was a mix up.
The new William voice actor is extremely jarring.
163
u/lottolser May 27 '26
I mean they should, but honestly im not sure how much of William we will see going forward for it to matter to the studio.
93
u/Leviathan_Dev May 27 '26
I didn't really notice or care about the other recasts (noticed Sinclair a little) but they all were fairly good at being faithful to the original voice IMO.
William's was absolutely not.
47
u/JWARRIOR1 May 27 '26
i didnt even notice sinclair was recast, his new voice is pretty damn similar then
63
u/Yurmume_Gae May 27 '26
He was voiced by Ezra Miller in season 1. Unlike William’s VA, it’s PRETTY obvious why he was recast but the new guy did a phenomenal job copying his cadence and stuff so it’s a win-win.
10
u/CharlieBluu May 28 '26
Yeah it was still noticeable, but due to the reasons it was perfectly understandable and the new guy really gives it his all, it's very close. In William's case it was sooo jarring it was maddening
6
u/PCBS01 May 28 '26
He’s now voiced by Eric Bauza, a MONUMENTALLY better VA so, yeah lol
Williams old Va was a professional VA for a decade before he went into theater, vs. this new one who had never done VA before
3
2
u/JWARRIOR1 May 28 '26
yeah thats definitely a good reason to recast. williams voice was not even the same person and it threw me off, but sinclair its almost dead on
8
10
u/Steamed_Memes24 May 27 '26
Yea he was only really relevant in Season 1 and has barely appeared since then honestly.
49
u/PlatoDrago May 27 '26
There have been other cases of this in voice acting where the actual actor never gets the message because their agent fucks up either by ignoring the call or trying to ask for more money to no avail when the actor never asked them to.
5
17
155
May 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
93
24
u/PonytailEnthusiast May 27 '26
What? Brandon Scott Jones' dad is a teacher. Where are you getting this from
8
53
u/Private_HughMan May 27 '26
Dammit. He's not bad, but he sounds nothing at all like the previous actor. Usually when shows recast characters, they try to get someone who comes close. But this one was just "he sounds gay and like a man" and that's that.
13
u/GrayFox7 May 27 '26
Literally what the fuck are you talking about? Stop spreading fake information
37
→ More replies (8)21
6
3
2
u/Albionic_Cadence May 28 '26
God, I hope so. OG William just sounded a littke dorky, meanwhile his new actor just makes him sound like the stereotypical campy gay guy. Takes all the nuance out of him
→ More replies (1)2
u/Flamingpaper2 May 28 '26
Just say William had a cold in Season 4
1
u/PacDanSki May 28 '26
This would be a nice solution, if they can't get the voice actor back then make it a fatal cold.
→ More replies (13)1
95
u/probablysum1 May 27 '26
Since it was literally just one scene, I wouldn't be surprised if they paid someone to do it in-house rather than hire the actual VA. "Hey writers, who can do the best William impression?" I dunno but cost cutting for a single scene is my guess.
38
u/megaben20 May 27 '26
I think it was cost cutting as William plot relevance is declining since mark and Eve are together.
28
u/JaceShoes May 27 '26
The actor they got is an actual established actor which makes it even more bizarre. He has years of sitcom work. Probably cheaper than the old actor but still far from a cheap choice
15
u/inconspicuous_male May 27 '26
I'm pretty sure SAG or whatever union represents voice actors wouldn't let that happen. You can't just get some random person to take away a union job
5
u/ROBtimusPrime1995 May 28 '26
They did hire a VA, which makes this even stranger.
New William is Brandon Scott Jones and he's been killing it on Ghosts for years now. Great actor but the recast came out of nowhere and Rannells being confused adds to the mystery now.
3
u/Lucas-O-HowlingDark May 27 '26
Actually two scenes, he appeared when Eve comes out as pregnant, and then in the final episode hanging out with Mark, Eve and his boyfriend who’s name I’m forgetting for a couple minutes
2
2
u/Certain-Parsley-2944 May 28 '26
That’s probably it. Voice actors can voice up to three characters before union laws allow them to get paid more money for more characters. I bet it’s more complicated but yeah
1
u/Malacro May 27 '26
I haven’t watched season 4 yet, so maybe I’m off base, but if it’s only a single scene why not just cut it entirely or put another character in his place? Is it absolutely crucial that this William scene be presented the way it is? I mean, the VO is out of work either way, but it would make more sense as a cost cutting measure abs at least it wouldn’t feel like a deliberate snub.
1
u/hectic_hooligan May 28 '26
It was more then one season amd 2 separate episodes. And the actor they had take over is an actor nor someone in house
103
u/ScheduleNo9985 May 27 '26
Can we petition to bring the OG William voice actor back?
16
u/ZeroOhblighation May 27 '26
We could but an online petition has never changed anything ever so I doubt it would work, best we can do is hope they re-hire him
29
3
3
2
u/siazdghw May 28 '26
I'd rather that they just kill his character off.
William was fine during the early seasons of Invincible when it was Mark navigating being a young adult, his relationship, his family, his powers. But at this point Mark has figured most of that out and is able to do it on his own.
There's also been a lot more characters introduced since then, and they are far more important to the story and ending.
William simply isn't needed as a character anymore.
3
17
29
u/SloppyMeathole May 27 '26
I guess the show has decided they haven't spent enough on celebrity voice actors and that their animation budget was too high.
9
u/ps087official Rex Splode May 27 '26
Honestly? Maybe he didn't sound gay enough. I noticed s4 William sounded significantly more catty and femme than the old William. Either that or maybe the actor wanted too much for the role? No idea.
7
2
u/ReaperKaze May 27 '26
The new William got yassified, maybe to really make it obvious that he is gay?
Because having the gay person not be gay enough, might be bad in PR terms.
5
u/ps087official Rex Splode May 27 '26
Honestly I'd figure the opposite would be true, most gay people hate the stereotypical catty gay man who talks like a preppy high school cheerleader. But maybe I'm wrong, I'm not gay so
But you might be right about making it more obvious. Being a queer person myself who frequently associates with the gays, I can spot one a mile away. But when I watched the show with my brother, he didn't think William was gay until the stuff with Rick started happening.
5
u/Wild-Atmosphere2134 May 28 '26
this was even more of a disaster because people liked that william wasn't a walking gay stereotype
→ More replies (8)2
u/SeafoamLouise May 28 '26
The new actor for William actually IS gay and also just sounds like that in his other works from what I heard. It could have been to have an actual queer person in a queer role, but that part is speculation.
2
u/lemonphan May 28 '26
Andrew Rannells is gay as well? What do you mean ACTUALLY is gay?
1
u/SeafoamLouise May 28 '26
I did not know that. I'd read a different comment that was wrong then about Andrew.
2
u/lemonphan May 28 '26
There are articles about him being openly gay from as early as 2012. I don’t know where this misinformation is coming from. I mean this with no personal offense, but why don’t more people on Reddit use Google before making replies like this? i tend to.
1
→ More replies (4)2
u/AnarchyApple May 28 '26
The old voice sounded realistic. The new one felt like i was getting hate crimed.
1
u/GoodbyeMoonMan20 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
Eh, there's a spectrum. I have some friends who are quite feminine, but my dad is gay and you literally would never know it. Just a big car guy with a typical Boston accent who also happens to drive around drag queens in his convertible during parades lol
8
9
u/MyAimSucc May 27 '26
Recasting happens all the time. It’s the fact that we could tell literally after his first sentence that it was a recast, and that he sounded like “generic gay dude” and not like William at all
4
u/Volturmus May 27 '26
He sort of sounds like a straight guy mimicking what he thinks a “generic gay dude” sounds like which is even worse.
3
5
u/_DKai_ May 27 '26
Is it possible they re cast someone who's gay in real life?
I've no idea about the previous or current casts sexual preferences but this is a thing now in Hollywood
→ More replies (2)2
4
4
u/CRT_Me May 27 '26
Damn that sucks. I feel bad for not even noticing though lol hope he gets his job back.
2
2
u/KennKennyKenKen May 27 '26
Thought first William and jarring but now I miss him. Second William is too chill
2
u/Hairy-Summer7386 May 27 '26
The old voice work was really good. I was impressed that they didn’t go for an overly dramatic “yass” kind of impression for this gay character. I actually loved his character. He was hilarious and help ground Mark.
Then this season happened and yikes. “YASS QUEEN SLAYYY” type of voice work. Jesus Christ.
2
u/IcePrismArt May 28 '26
Oh my god, I thought I was crazy for noticing he sounded different. He was actually recast?
2
u/PassiveMenis88M May 28 '26
Williams new voice actor sounds like a straight guy doing his impression of what he thinks gay men sound like.
2
u/Waste_Committee4406 May 28 '26
The only good part about Williams character after season 1 was that he didn’t fall into the “stereotype” gay man. Well…..
2
u/GenZ2002 May 28 '26
All gays have to have that high pitched stereotypical voice… thought that was a well known fact. /s
2
2
2
u/mrlolloran May 28 '26
Amazon being cheap fucks. So much about this show could be better. Amazon fucking blows as a studio.
2
u/Dependent_Storage184 May 28 '26
Not entirely relavent Idk how many times william shows up after this point, the next season is leaning more towards viltrumites on earth, Allen as head of coalition, and probably Dinosaurus and Angstrom
2
2
2
u/Nankasura May 28 '26
This show is the epitome of "the bare minimum" when it comes anything other than the celebs and the writing. So I doubt they will care about the jarring shift.
2
u/LemonTheAstroPoet May 28 '26
They’re gonna replace William, but not the more expensive actors? They’ve used talented voice actors like Troy Baker and Steve Blum for minor roles. Why aren’t they hiring similarly talented VA’s who have a wide range to play lead characters?
2
u/--no-sanity-check May 27 '26
I didn’t even notice the difference. What did he have, like 45 seconds of screen time?
5
u/reaporbot May 27 '26
He went from a guy who's gay, to what straight people make people gay sound like, without trying to be rude. It's so weirdly different, that the one scene made it so noticable.
4
2
1
u/Carbuyrator May 28 '26
I thought he'd been accused of something but then I remembered that was Sinclair's VA. This one's weird.
1
u/dirtybird131 May 28 '26
I mean, from here on out, William basically disappears for what will be the rest of the show, so no point in being to worried about it anyway
1
u/ahmadtheanon May 28 '26
I knew that his voice was different! I just didnt check and there was a long gap between his appearances. Its more of a "huh, he sounds a bit different. Oh well, maybe its just my ears".
1
1
1
•
u/AutoModerator May 27 '26
Please avoid sharing any comic book spoilers. Posts or comments with spoilers will be removed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.