Here it is, Guardians: our first look – well, hear, technically – at Keith David’s Commander Zavala in Destiny 2: The Final Shape.
We already knew that Bungie had no plans to remove Zavala from the Destiny 2 story given he was “central” to the upcoming The Final Shape expansion, but this is the first time we’ve heard Zavala voiced by David. Up until now, Zavala’s voice work had been recorded in advance by his original voice actor, Lance Reddick, who sadly died last year.
The line is brief, yes – “I used to think I’d give anything to bring you back”, is all he says – but it’s especially powerful given the team had to unexpectedly recast the commander after Reddick, who was a committed and celebrated Destiny player himself, died.
You can hear it yourself in the video embedded below, which has been clipped from the full dev diary above.
BREAKING: First look at Keith David’s (@ImKeithDavid) Commander Zavala in Destiny 2 The Final Shape. pic.twitter.com/aAY1J7JHuA
— Destiny Bulletin (@DestinyBulletn) May 23, 2024
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“Couldn’t have picked a better replacement to carry the torch,” said one respondent on X.
“This scene right here made me cry. Lance would be so proud of Keith,” added another.
Unlike the player’s Ghost companion, which saw Nolan North replace all the voice work of Peter Dinklage after the latter exited the project, all lines already recorded Reddick will remain in-game, whereas all new content will be recorded by Keith David.