As fans await the highly anticipated Bayonetta 3, the original voice actress of the titular superheroine, Hellena Taylor, recently shared in a Twitter post that she will not be returning for the new entry after she was offered a mere $4000 to reprise the role.
“The Bayonetta franchise made approximately $450 million. That’s not including merchandise. As an actor, I trained for a total of seven and a half years.”
She continued by saying, “What did they think this was worth? What did they offer to pay me? The final offer to do the whole game, as a buyout, flat rate, was $4000. This is an insult to me and the amount of time I took to work on my talent and everything I’ve given to this game and to the fans.”
Taylor is a respected performer in the community of seasoned professional voice actors. She has been voicing the iconic shape-shifting Bayonetta, a witch with the ability to summon demons and fire snazzy guns from her massive heels, since the first 2009 entry of the same name that was initially released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Bayonetta 3 will see Taylor’s role as the main character being replaced by Jennifer Hale, one of the most prominent talents in the history of the modern business, with major credits from the Halo, Mass Effect, and Metal Gear Solid franchises, amongst many others.
In the last part of her statement, Taylor requested that “fans boycott [Bayonetta 3]” and instead donate the money they would be spending on it to charity.
Update: Jennifer Hale has since come forward and issued a public statement responding to the controversial shift in actors.
She has said, “As a longtime member of the voice acting community, I support every actor’s right to be paid well and have advocated consistently for this for years.”
It clearly seems as though she wants to stay out of the situation entirely and simply show respect for all sides.
Bayonetta 3 was released on October 28, 2022, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.