Despite earlier reports to the alternative, longtime Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy is returning to provide his trademark gutteral, gravelly voice for the Dark Knight for the Arkham prequel, Batman: Arkham Origins.
Conroy visited the Dallas Comic Con and broke the news to happy fans that he'd be reprising the role once again. As a matter of fact, he's actually been hard at work on the role for the last few months, adding another notch in his utility belt.
So if Conroy's returning, what's all this about Roger Craig Smith?
According to Joystiq, the voice behind Assassin's Creed's Ezio, and Resident Evil's Chris Redfield is also the new Caped Crusader. The news comes from Waner Bros. itself, adding to the confusion. Also adding their vocal talents is the similarly prolific Troy Baker as the infamous Joker. Fans will recognize Baker's work as Booker DeWitt from BioShock Infinite, and Jake Muller in Resident Evil 6, as well as numerous other roles, including Arkham City.
At the moment, Arkham Origins has yet to be added to any of three voice actors' resumes on imdb.com. But as Joystiq theorizes, "We know Origins deals with Batman's "initiation into that insane world" of the other Arkham games, so perhaps Conroy's role is something retrospective. Even if Conroy doesn't play the dark knight in any sense in Origins, to fans he's still the goddamn Batman."
Damn straight.
Obviously a prequel to the first two Arkham games, Origins takes place on a hellish night early in Batman's career. The leading capo of crime in the city, Black Mask, has put a large sum of money on the table for the man who manages to take out Gotham's leading vigilante. The money's up for grabs between 8 major assassins, and some of Gotham's not-so-finest boys in blue.
The combat system is the same one that's been seen in the previous games, thankfully, but it will have "new layers, new opportunities, and new tactics," as well as his usual array of wonderful toys, including some never before seen ones.
While you won't hear Conroy, be sure to check out the latest Origins trailer in completion here.
