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Since Swain’s new voice and look was revealed, we here at the Rift Herald have been making jokes about him being Tywin-ized. This is, of course, a reference to Charles Dance’s character, Tywin Lannister, from Game of Thrones. Well, it turns out that joke was a little closer to reality than we thought.
Thanks to a post on Reddit by user Spideraxe30, players were pointed to a Twitter discussion between a user and famous British actor James Faulkner.
I’d say the odds were pretty good. Surprised they didn’t credit me.
— James Faulkner (@jamessfaulkner) February 17, 2018
JD responded to Faulkner by quoting “they” (Riot, presumably) saying that they “could not reveal who it was, but hoped to be able to.” The fan later goes on to praise Faulkner for his (brilliant) performance as Swain, which the actor kindly thanked them for.
Riot has had somewhat of a weird history with voice actors. Typically, the studio will not reveal the identity of the actor unless the actors do it themselves. This was clearly news to Faulkner and has lead to all sorts of strange problems, like the internet’s weird suspicion that Patrick Warburton voices Zac.
Faulkner has performed in countless films, television shows and even video games. However, players will most likely recognize him from his most recent turn as Randyll Tarly on Game of Thrones. Randyll is the evil father of Samwell Tarly, and the reason why Sam joined the Nights Watch to begin with. While Randyll isn’t necessarily an evil dictator like Swain, he is the head of a small but important House and one of Westeros’ greatest military minds. Faulkner first appeared in the show during Season 6, although his character has been referenced since Season 1.