Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 remains the best brand new game of the year on aggregate sites like Metacritic, topping other incredibly popular games like Blue Prince, Split Fiction, and the recently-released Death Stranding 2. A lot of this can be attributed to its genuinely innovative turn-based gameplay, its beautiful, compelling world, and its incredibly beloved characters. From Gustave to Verso and everyone in between, Expedition 33 fires on all cylinders with its handful of eclectic, believable, and downright awesome characters.
Bringing these characters to life is the result of the writers at studio Sandfall Interactive, the artists who gave them every twitch and shudder, and the actors who brought them all to life. Recently, Charlie Cox has garnered positive reactions to a humble response about his role as Gustave in Expedition 33. However, he's absolutely right about one thing—and the attention and reaction are going in the wrong direction, sometimes outright ignoring the implication of his own statements.
Charlie Cox in Expedition 33
Charlie Cox plays Gustave in Expedition 33, with that initial announcement no doubt bringing a lot of attention to the game. His acting chops are a draw, his face is instantly recognizable, and his performances are second to none. The actor has earned his acclaim. In fact, he's downright irreplaceable as Daredevil. He is to Daredevil what Robert Downey Jr is to Iron Man and Chris Evans is to Captain America. He's that good in TV, in films, and on the stage, but it should not be ignored that Expedition 33 is his first video game credit. Everyone starts somewhere, that's not to be ignored, and anyone and everyone should be welcome in this industry. The problem, based on reactions to his comments, is how often the actors IN this industry are ignored.
At the 2025 Washington State Summer Con, Cox briefly discussed his role as Gustave during a Hell's Kitchen panel where he confirmed that he had not played the game himself. It was as simple as his agent asking him to do a voiceover where he spent roughly four hours in the booth. He's happy the project did well, saying it was amazing to see, but noted that he feels like a "total fraud" when congratulated. Cox is not a fraud, but the reaction so far has been to the humility of this statement and how much they love Gustave. And Gustave is certainly lovable, as is Cox.
Since the release of Expedition 33, its cast has been continuously praised by the fans and the media, but on a completely different level than this. It is a recurring trend that actors in this industry are outright dismissed if they are not from Hollywood, and the reaction to some of Cox's comments gives a look into a lot of misunderstandings. Take the four-hour remark, for example, which many consider brief and short. That's likely not exact, but it's not a random number.
Four hours in the booth may be nothing for one role, but actors in this industry must protect their voice just like Hollywood actors must protect their image. Four hours is a strain when repeated every day for weeks, and that's if an actor in this industry is lucky enough to work on just one role. More than once, actors have reported voicing different roles all at once, jumping from four-hour session to four-hour session, getting into completely different characters, and struggling to survive. The SAG-AFTRA strikes for AI protection is just one example of the latter, with the union only reaching a tentative agreement after 10 months.
This is just for voice performance. Facial and motion capture technology has advanced and become even more demanding on industry actors.
Cox performs in a video game once and his name draws attention, but it's hard to ignore that the other actors in Expedition 33 have been carrying this industry on their backs. He is not a fraud, nor are they, but his performance opens doors. Theirs doesn't. They might as well be gommaged in the eyes of the rest of the world.
Expedition 33 Cast List
- Jennifer English - Maelle
- Kirsty Rider - Lune
- Shala Nyx - Sciel
- Andy Serkis - Renoir
- Ben Starr - Verso
- Rich Keeble - Monoco
- Maxence Cazorla - Esquie
- Of note, Benn Starr, Kirsty Rider, Rich Keeble, and Shala Nyx are also credited as "Additional Voices" in Expedition 33, performing more than one role in the game.
- Adam Diggle, Aiden Felgate, Aliona Baranova, Bailey Patrick, Billie Fulford-Brown, Devora Wilde, Elena Delia, Freya Parker, Richard Booth, Tarrick Benham, and Tracy Wiles are also credited as "Additional Voices."
Actors in Expedition 33, Gaming, and Beyond
You may recognize Jennifer English as Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3, but beyond Maelle in Expedition 33, did you know she played Latenna in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, served as a voice director on Jagged Alliance 3, served as voice director and also played Bliss in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, played Willa in Augmented Empire, and lent her talents to Spellforce 3? Did you know her time in the industry goes back to 2017?
Did you know Kirsty Rider also played the boss Kuroki in Sifu? Did you know that Shala Nyx also performed as Deianeira in Expeditions: Rome, Zanah in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, additional voices in Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, additional voices in Diablo 4, a bunch of characters and voices in Baldur's Gate 3, Farida in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, voices in AC Mirage, Bess Law in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, and a handful of characters in both Space Marine 2 and Metaphor: ReFantazio, all before performing Sciel in Expedition 33? Did you know that Shala Nyx's earliest credit only goes back to 2022?
Did you know that, before Ben Starr went "mainstream" in the gaming industry as Clive Rosfield in Final Fantasy 16, he had credits going back to 2013 and has only doubled down on his craft since FF16? Did you know I can keep going with many of the names above and that this is not an uncommon story? Did you know that, in any other entertainment industry, these folks would be treated like royalty and I wouldn't have to put "mainstream" in quotation marks because what is mainstream, beyond this industry, continues to ignore its contributions to entertainment, if not culture outright?
It's the nature of fame that some stars are more popular and well-known than others, but the treatment of our actors as Z-listers is absurd.
Why Does This Happen is an Eternal Question
If you attend any kind of convention, you will see lines for several of these actors that are incredibly anxiety-inducing. Neil Newbon's line at LvL Up Expo earlier this year never seemed to end. Fans, who genuinely care about these characters, tend to find these actors who brought them to life. It is not that industry actors are not known to fans, but that their fame and prominence only exist within fandom communities and are oftentimes outright dismissed everywhere else. These communities and those who make them so lively get shafted by the "mainstream" continuously, despite incredible accolades.
Baldur's Gate 3 actors did not necessarily get more work after such incredible performance work; that would not happen in film and TV. Most reviews of The Alters did not cite Alex Jordan's performance when and if discussing its lovable cast of characters where every Jan Dolski is played by him; imagine a movie or TV review that did not address its actors. Hollywood actors can come to gaming, stumbling or with open arms, and be more than welcome, but if an industry actor goes to Hollywood, it doesn't matter how many credits they have, whether it was voice, facial, or motion capture, or how much money that game made. Worse, the value of the performance means little regardless of the technology and work ethic leveraged.
This is not new; seven years ago, Roger Craig Smith in an interview (and please tell me you know him) said that turning down other work as games become more demanding was detrimental to running a career and generating income. That remains true, yet our actors are still here, visible and in front of us, ignored by everyone but fans, while gaming remains the most popular and profitable entertainment industry in the world.
They might as well be gommaged in the eyes of the rest of the world.
The eternal question is: Why is this the case? Actors actively discuss this, put themselves out as actors with initiatives like The Pixel Pack, and pour the same passion into their performances as developers do into the game. They're certainly not doing this to get rich. They're certainly not doing it for mainstream fame. Perhaps this dismissive attitude is a result of early games not historically needing performance, maybe it's a result of some still treating it like software and not art, and some of it is certainly due to the lack of emphasis put on their names and faces. But it is their name, it is their face in some cases, and that's only going to keep growing. Our actors get the hatred of any other, while lackluster performances can bring down a game, but they don't receive the Charlie Cox treatment the first time, second time, or a decade later in some cases.
Charlie Cox put on an incredible, emotional, and believable performance as Gustave in Expedition 33. This is even more impressive if he were treated like an industry actor and conducted this performance with little information, effectively giving a cold reading. You cannot take that away from him, that's not what this is about. My question is: why do we take this away from industry actors who have delivered performance after performance, role after role after role, year after year, for whom this specific performance industry is a passion? If Cox was any other actor who put on just as good of a performance, he would not be well-known outside small circles for a few more years, if at all. Give him his flowers, but the world should give our actors theirs too.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 92 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- April 24, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Sandfall Interactive
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Turn-Based RPG, JRPG, Fantasy
