Nintendo has changed the voice actor for Samus in Metroid 4, so Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale is no longer the voice actor
Blog Andrew Joseph 03 Dec , 2025 0
The new game's credits reveal that legendary voice actor Jennifer Hale has been replaced as the voice of Samus in Metroid Prime 4.
There have been a number of actors voicing Samus over the years, though Hale was the grunt-and-cry artist for most of the bounty hunter in Metroid 1, 2, and 3 (with some additional work from second artist Vanessa Marshall).
Many fans thought Hale would return as Samus in Nintendo's long-awaited new Prime game, but Nintendo Life Metroid Prime 4 credits are now being reported, with Erin Yvette taking on the role of Samus.
If you're playing Metroid Prime 4 and Samus' grunt sounds familiar, Yvette previously voiced Snow White in The Wolf Among Us, Alex in Oxenfree, and can now be heard voicing Blonde Blazer in Dispatch.
Over the past few years, Nintendo has replaced many of its former regular voice actors; Includes Mario and Luigi veteran voice actor Charles Martinet. Meanwhile, Princess Peach and Toad voice actress Samantha Kelly, When Super Mario character ends her 18-year tenure on Nintendo Switch 2 launch day – when mario kart world It was released without her in it. Takashi Nagasaka, who had voiced Donkey Kong for 21 years, was also replaced after the launch of Switch 2.
IGN recently spoke with Hale to discuss her past work as Samus and asked her if she had recorded any new material during Metroid Prime 4's lengthy development process.
“I don't know,” Hale told IGN. “I don't remember recording it or signing the contract, so probably not. That's the thing when we were working, everything was under one code name, so they would call it Sasquatch or Pineapple or Cookie Jar. And then 'Okay, I'm going to do Cookie Jar.' And then when you go into meetings, they tell you, but it stays in your brain for a much shorter time. It's not as sticky.”
While Hale's performance as Samus is limited to the grunts of the famously silent bounty hunter, she said she still had a full voice for the character in her head while playing the role.
“I like to nail down how a character will speak before I purr them, because your grunt is different from my grunt, different from other people's grunts,” Hale explains. “It's very specific. If you're a civilian and you grunt, you're like… (grunts in surprise) because it's all surprising and it's all new. If you've done this a million times, you're like (grunts in surprise) because you've been shot 1,800 times and you're used to it.”
Over the years, Hale has voiced a series of famous video game characters, including Rivet in Ratchet & Clank, Naomi Hunt in Metal Gear Solid, and Rosalind Lutus in Bioshock Infinite. But perhaps it's because of her role in Mass Effect that she's best known. Hale told IGN She hasn't been invited to return to Mass Effect 5 yetbut if BioWare got in touch, “they would be there before the sentence was finished.”
“Not all of Prime 4's new content will work, but it's still a great return,” IGN wrote in our article. Metroid Prime 4 Reviewrating the game 8/10.
Tom Phillips is IGN's news editor. You can contact Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social