Get to da controllah.
In case you’ve been following the news about Amazon’s Secret Level—an anthology of animated videogame shorts put together by the same folks who made Love, Death + Robots—you might’ve seen a leak pop up, briefly, on the information highway.
The leaked trailer, which reportedly saw an unfinished version of several of these shorts, also happened to reveal the project’s cast. That’s now been confirmed in official channels, as per a New York Comic Con panel (via Variety). Here’s the full roster:
Arnold SchwarzeneggerKevin HartKeanu ReevesTemuera MorrisonAriana GreenblattHeaven HartEmily SwallowGabriel LunaRicky WhittlePatrick SchwarzeneggerMerle DandridgeClaudia DoumitAdewale Akinnuoye-AgbajeClive StandenLaura BaileyMichael Beach
The list is chock-a-block, dare I say star-studded. Keanu Reeves, already a known videogame presence via Cyberpunk 2077, is making an appearance—and Kevin Hart apparently seems determined to grind his way into the gaming industry, not too traumatised by the Borderlands movie to give it another go. I’m not sure how I feel about the lack of actual voice actors (beyond Laura Bailey) but it sure is impressive.
Most fascinating is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearance—we all know him as the Terminator, and while he’s made some movie videogame appearances before (mostly movie tie-in games, which he was likely obligated via contract to do) his relationship with the medium’s been turbulent, to say the least.
Granted, this was almost 20 years ago, but while Schwarzenegger was serving as California’s governor in 2005, he attempted to sign into existence a bill that would stop minors being sold or rented violent videogames—though that bill was watered down by the time it came into effect. Rather than $1,000 fines for violators, stores simply had to signpost their violent games properly.
Anyway, one can presumably consider his attitude mellowed, given the satanic-panic style fretting over violent videogames corrupting the youth hasn’t exactly manifested—Call of Duty lobbies notwithstanding. While the whole exercise of Secret Level seems a bit corporate and big-budget in nature, I’m genuinely excited to see exactly who Arnie’s voicing, as well as that Concord episode, which I’m sure won’t be awkward for anybody at Sony.
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