Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Ganondorf is Critical Role’s Matt Mercer

Matthew Mercer from Critical Role has revealed that — as many suspected — he supplies the voice of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom – The Legend of Zelda.

Following the release of Thursday’s new trailer for the game, which confirmed the return of Ganondorf in his (super hot) human Gerudo form, Mercer announced his involvement on Twitter.

“I just got the go-ahead from Nintendo, so I can FINALLY announce my absolute pleasure to be voicing Ganondorf in the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom,” Mercer said. “An immense honor that I have thrown myself into doing justice.”

Mercer has shared photos of himself as a kid dressed up as Link, as well as cosplaying Ganondorf for a webseries. “I have been an immense Legend of Zelda fan since I was a child, and Ganondorf has been one of my favorite antagonists… to the point where I portrayed this green-skinned menace for my webseries over a decade ago!” he said.

“Many of you know the weight of expectation on my shoulders for this, and I hope to do you proud. We would like to thank everyone for their support. [Nintendo]The entire Tears of Kingdom team for entrusting me with such a badass.”

Fans suspected the role had fallen to Mercer after hearing snippets of what seemed to be Ganondorf’s voice in an earlier trailer for the game. As well as acting as dungeon master for the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons actual play series Critical Role, Mercer is a prolific voice actor who has portrayed Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 6Chrom appears in Fire Emblem and Cole Cassidy is featured in OverwatchAs well as voice parts in many English dubs, including Attack on Titan, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, NarutoThen, Dragon Ball Super. Naturally, he provides some of the voices in the Critical Role animated series. Vox Machina, the Legend of Vox Machina.

Ganondorf’s return wasn’t the only thing teased by Thursday’s Tears of KingdomThe trailer also featured a bewildering variety of characters and game possibilities. Nintendo’s next Zelda epic is out for Nintendo Switch on May 12.