Square Enix has announced on their site that the Japanese voice actor for Olaf, Pierre Taki, will be replaced in a future update for Kingdom Hearts III. Taki was recently arrested with using cocaine. Disney has already announced they are looking for a replacement for Olaf for the Japanese release of Frozen 2, which is set to release later this year.

His replacement and a date for the update patch has yet to be announced. The patch will only be for the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts III.  

View full article

Well, the character is known for being made of white powder, sooo...

Does it really matter? The work has already been finished, the actor was paid. I don't know what the benefit would be to replace him the game. The movie I understand, since there's still plenty of time, but why go back and change the voice? Surely people would understand that they hired and paid the guy BEFORE the arrest?

31 minutes ago, Green Sparrow said:

Does it really matter? The work has already been finished, the actor was paid. I don't know what the benefit would be to replace him the game. The movie I understand, since there's still plenty of time, but why go back and change the voice? Surely people would understand that they hired and paid the guy BEFORE the arrest?

In a perfect world they would but believe me when I say this, people WILL use this against the company, be it through bad jokes or direct accusations, but people always judge before they think. Sad as it sounds the company thinks it's still fairly early for the game to have the change done so people do not relate KHIII or Frozen 2 (2 major projects) with a drug user.

Edited March 14, 20196 yr by KeybladeMasterBalo

that's sadly the world we live in where people can't separate people from their work, hence making these kinds of really PR stunts necessary,

 

not even for fear of being seen badly really, but because it will more than surely spark outrage for whatever reason. which is really sad and stupid, even more when we consider what seems to be the "issue" here.

oh well.

2 hours ago, cyntix said:

Well, the character is known for being made of white powder, sooo...

Good one! 

Also, that's a shame for the Japanese voice actor.

47 minutes ago, KeybladeMasterBalo said:

In a perfect world they would but believe me when I say this, people WILL use this against the company, be it through bad jokes or direct accusations, but people always judge before they think. Sad as it sounds the company thinks it's still fairly early for the game to have the change done so people do not relate KHIII or Frozen 2 (2 major projects) with a drug user.

You're right, but it's still weird though.

I wonder if they would've done the same thing if SORA's voice actor was caught in the same thing. Olaf is a pretty small role in the game, but would they have really gone through all the effort to find a new VA to re-record ALL of Sora's lines? Where does it end?

Lmao they gonna replace the entire American cast as well? You're not gonna tell me no one from that celeb roster ever tried cocaine. 

Great, they should do the same with Kairi and Xion. Let Hayden reprise her role!

On 3/14/2019 at 5:54 PM, Green Sparrow said:

Does it really matter? The work has already been finished, the actor was paid. I don't know what the benefit would be to replace him the game. The movie I understand, since there's still plenty of time, but why go back and change the voice? Surely people would understand that they hired and paid the guy BEFORE the arrest?

I am with you an actor should always be seperated from his work. Most weird of all are those people that after Something like this happend say that he was never that good to begin with and such and such its scary how people seem to have a filter in their mind were everything must be viewed with a certain judgment beforehand.

On 3/14/2019 at 6:38 PM, sorakm said:

that's sadly the world we live in where people can't separate people from their work, hence making these kinds of really PR stunts necessary,

 

not even for fear of being seen badly really, but because it will more than surely spark outrage for whatever reason. which is really sad and stupid, even more when we consider what seems to be the "issue" here.

oh well.

Yeah its sad that politics gets its dirty fingers into art. I personally have now problem saying that hitlers portraits were great and that i dont see why he wasnt taken into art school. But there are people who will read that sentence and interpret all kinds of things. To be honest i despise people like that, people to whom art is not a reflection of life and all its complexitys but just a mere expressiin of ideological  preference

On 3/14/2019 at 4:03 PM, cyntix said:

Well, the character is known for being made of white powder, sooo...

Oooooohhhhh!

On 3/14/2019 at 11:14 AM, Green Sparrow said:

You're right, but it's still weird though.

I wonder if they would've done the same thing if SORA's voice actor was caught in the same thing. Olaf is a pretty small role in the game, but would they have really gone through all the effort to find a new VA to re-record ALL of Sora's lines? Where does it end?

In that case it would be difficult, not only because that's the main character and the cost for re-recording all his lines would be quite a hit to the pocket, but the fans will riot as well. Think of Phil's voice as an example, people thought it was weird and a horrible decision for the character not to talk in the game at all, later they knew it was because of respect for the actor who passed away so they settled down but still, people was clearly affected by one sidekick character, imagine it being of the main ones. I think they wouldn't go that far if it was Sora's voice actor but that would surely be his last role as Sora's.

I know who's Olaf's new JP voice actor.

It's Shunsuke Takechui.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunsuke_Takeuchi

On 3/14/2019 at 6:17 PM, AxelRoxasXionKH said:

Lmao they gonna replace the entire American cast as well? You're not gonna tell me no one from that celeb roster ever tried cocaine. 

Keep in mind this is Japan. They might not have the more sympathetic attitude towards drug users that we've developed in recent years.

 

On 3/15/2019 at 4:29 AM, Iscreamer1 said:

Great, they should do the same with Kairi and Xion. Let Hayden reprise her role!

I don't think she even wants to do Kairi anymore. She seems to be taking a break from acting right now(last IMDB credit is in 2018). And, as far as I know, she wasn't as vocal about being replaced as, for example, the Scooby Doo voice actors were. I imagine if she were passionate about the role, she probably would have tried to get back into the booth for KH3.