Horizon's Writers Haven't Thought About Series without Lance Reddick

I am sure that they can do some ai voice voodoo magic. Just pay his family the regular salary.

Couldn’t imagine playing the games without him, he was easily the best character and y’know, actually interesting.

Just have the character pass between the games. I don't want him recast nor do i want AI replacing him.

I hate Sylens’s guts but Horizon is not going to be the same without him. Perhaps Tilda sabotages his gear offscreen?

RIP Mr. Reddick.

I think a good way to honor Lance in Horizon 3 would be to meet a confidant of Silens in whatever new region Aloy goes to. Someone Silens had a rivalry but mutual respect with.
And obviously, he should be played by Lavar Burton.

@Ryu_Niiyama I don't really like killing a character and especially off screen because the actor died.

It's pretty simple. The character dies or is otherwise out of the action for the bulk of the story. Beta has to figure out how to be the tech guru (she ought to be more qualified in some ways) to try to step into that part of Sylens' role, while Aloy asks herself what Sylens would do when she faces major decisions (as well as what Elisabet would do), and how he would disagree with whatever choice she makes.

He survives as a voice in Aloy's head - not literally, but as a touchstone Aloy thinks about from time to time. Honor the character (and actor) without ripping off the voice with AI.

I’m with Horizon writers - we miss him. Such a talented actor gone way too soon.

He was one of my favorite characters. Great voice. Wherever Horizon goes, his presence will be missed.

My first Lance Reddick thing was The Fringe, where he was cast as Agent Phillip Broyles. He's been consistently great in everything he's been in.

Broyles and Sylens had that "shady guy knows more than he lets on" thing going on.

Very sudden, very sad. He'll be missed.

@RobN problem with that is Aloy seems to distrust him (with good reason) so a sudden shift to "you're my new Rost" would be crap.

I think Sylens being killed off screen doing something heroic wouldn't be too out of character and sends him off well, and then Aloy can bring him up in a good light at times, like you mentioned.

@MattBoothDev same, Fringe (at least the first few series, got a bit silly towards the end) is one of my all time favourite shows and he was a massive part of it.

Great in anything I have watched him in and gutted with his passing.

@THEH4MM did you ever notice the smooooth walk he had going on?

@MattBoothDev I'd have said stiff rather than smooth but I get what you mean yeah

He was largely absent throughout Forbidden West and i missed him then. Another reason why I thought the first game was vastly superior.

@MattBoothDev He was class in Fringe, great show. My first introduction to Lance was OZ, he didn't come into it until the later series but he immediately had presence and that walk certainly fit well as an under cover cop in jail!!

I absolutely love Lance. No one can walk like Lance. RIP

Sylens feels like too pivotal a character to just have him fall off the face of the Earth/die offscreen as Nemesis approaches, or to just have him "appear" via text messages and the like.

I don't think there's an elegant solution here - even if they preserved his character model and got a new VA, it'd feel very off, regardless of whether the new VA tried to do his own thing or imitate Reddick's performance. And the AI voice suggestion is terrible in like twenty different ways.

The only thing I can think of — and no one is going to like this — is to just not make the sequel. Make the multiplayer game and make other games. You can’t fix this offscreen or AI the problem away.

Either replace the actor (likeness and voice) or use different people while recognizing he is already gone (like with chadwick boseman in black phanter 2), don't use ai voice since I think it's exploitative to all party involved.

@koffing There's no way in heck sony isn't going to make horizon 3 since the 1st and 2nd ones sells so well, games are made by thousand of people, it's just not fair to anyone (including gamers) if sony stop making it because one or two person isn't available.

I think the best tribute to an excellent and well liked actor would be to keep Sylens image and voice that of Lance. They must have motion capture of him and voice samples, and the skin of the sprite is already generated. Assuming the permission of his family.

@MattBoothDev At this point, she trusts him. She doesn't like him much, didn't agree with all his choices, resents how little he's willing to share and how manipulative he can be, but despite all that she does what he suggests.

It would have to be well written, and she'd have to be making choices she thinks he'd be calling naive and short-sighted, and it would need to be used at a few key place and not at every turn - but it could work.

I don't think they have any choice but to do the "off screen character death" solution. I'm sure they can include a flashback to keep Sylens' connected in the finale, but necessarily move on in the story. Though with Sylens being Sylens I think it has to be something "dubious" Sylens manages to get indisposed by. He's no hero, he makes instant enemies everywhere. He's loathsome in the worst way that sometimes he's not. It's very in-character for his shady character to get him into trouble between the games and he's out. The question then becomes how do you fulfill the role he played in the game, as Lance's acting has a gravity in the story that's hard to replace with something new.

I don’t believe they haven’t thought of it. I do believe they’re still grieving though. Lance Reddick was a big part of the storyline of Horizon. I really hope they don’t do the off-screen death stunt. He deserves much, much better.

His character probably was slated to die in the finale though, probably in a sacrifice to save Aloy and for Guerilla to display he’s “human” & changed. But there’s no way Mr. Reddick would’ve wanted his beloved character to be given a death less significant than originally meant.

@WallyWest They can't do that in this case. Sylens is far too important for the story not to have him in the third game. He will definitely be recast.

@GigaGaia Of course they can its called rewriting the plot. TV and Film do it all the time and if Marvel can rewrite Black Panther 2 around its leading star passing then GG can rewrite Horizon 3 around Lance's passing.

If its true the 3rd game would have seen him be a more major character, that is a shame as I'm sure he would have been great.
But I'd be against them using AI to generate his voice, I think if would be fairly morbid honestly. Even using the recorded motion data and casting a sound-alike would seem a bit tasteless.

I think his sudden passing should be mirrored with the game. Whether they use existing recorded lines to wrap his character up, or even have him die offscreen by the new threat of the 3rd game, that would be greatly preferred to a 'Star Wars' like Tarkin solution of posthumous casting. Whether they have the family permission or not, it feels exploitative.

@Nepp67 I get what you're saying, but at the same time it would be horrible to recast him, especially since Lance was the character model as well. There's not really a good option to be honest. I'd much rather they killed him off in between games than recast him at the very least.

His likeness and voice can easily be recreated using AI. Especially at the rate with which AI is growing. By the time the next Horizon game gets made, AI will probably have enough to work with analyzing only about 10/15 minutes of Lance's spoken lines in HZD and HFW.

They need a side story off-shoot: The Chronicles of Reddick.