On December 3rd, it was announced by Bioware that both Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah would be leaving Bioware. The latter, who was the executive producer of the Dragon Age series, took to Twitter to respond to criticism he received from series voice actor Greg Ellis.
After the story broke that Mark Darrah would be stepping down as executive producer of the Dragon Age series, with Christian Dailey taking his place, many were concerned with the future of the Dragon Age series. The loss of Darrah didn’t seem to worry voice actor Greg Ellis one bit. He took to Twitter voicing his opinion that Darrah’s departure from the series could be nothing but a good thing. Ellis stated that Darrah was a “disloyal, duplicitous corporate fake,” and implied that Darrah did not willingly step down, but was forced to resign for the good of Bioware.
Darrah responded to Ellis stating that had been avoiding doing so for some time, but decided that yesterday, a day that Bioware unofficially dubbed Dragon Age Day, would be the day he’d finally address the criticisms. Darrah questioned Ellis on why he believed his online behavior would ever lead him to be hired onto a Dragon Age game. He additionally questioned if Ellis’ comments were performative in some way to get attention from certain groups, but noted if that was the case, Bioware wasn’t going to be impressed.
Ellis previously tweeted support for author J.K. Rowling when she came under fire for comments deemed to be transphobic. If Ellis was also deemed to be transphobic by Bioware, then Darrah would likely be absolutely correct that the company would want to distance themselves from Ellis. Bioware often has a rather diverse casts of characters in its games and the Dragon Age series specifically has two trans characters: Maevaris Tilani and Cremisius “Krem” Aclassi. Bioware also patched a conversation in Mass Effect: Andromeda when fans pointed out a conversation with a minor trans character was not represented well.
Regardless of what Ellis’ views may be, the fact remains that he was indeed hired onto not just one Dragon Age game, but three. He provided the voice for Anders in Dragon Age Origins: Awakening before switching over to playing Cullen in Dragon Age II and Dragon Age Inquisition. It’s unclear whether or not Bioware was aware of any controversial opinions from Ellis during his work on these games, but Darrah’s response yesterday implies that he clashed with them on some level for some time, even if it was just with Darrah.
This leaves Cullen’s status in Dragon Age 4 rather nebulous. He could be recast as he was recast between Origins and II, or he may not play a part in the upcoming game. Cullen was a romantic interest in Inquisition however, so removing him may upset fans who romanced him, but as each Dragon Age game stars a different protagonist, many characters tend to be cut out from game to game.
No release info has yet been given for Dragon Age 4.
Source: Twitter/Mark Darrah
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