Starfield very nearly had you playing as Deus Ex’s Adam Jensen

It’s pretty well known that Bethesda nearly had a voiced protagonist in Starfield. The developer decided against it in the end. However, did you know that one of those actors could well have been the voice behind Adam Jensen?

In a recent post on Twitter/X, Elias Toufexis, who takes on the role of the main character in the two most recent Deus Ex games, said he was originally going to voice the Starfield hero.

Yeah it’s true. @cissyspeaks and I were originally the player voices in #Starfield. We worked for months.

When they decided the player should be voiceless they gave Cissy and me Andreja and Sam Coe.

Games NEVER do this. Once you’re out you’re out.

Good on Bethesda pic.twitter.com/QpGoC6YmWn

— ᴇʟɪᴀꜱ ᴛᴏᴜꜰᴇxɪꜱ 🖖 (@EliasToufexis) November 8, 2023

He also said that Cissy Jones – another prolific video game voice artist – was originally planned to play the protagonist, presumably the female version. However, while Bethesda did scrap the idea in the end, we did still get to hear both actors, with Toufexis playing Sam Coe and Jones playing Andreja.

Would it have been better?

With the exception of Fallout 4, Bethesda games typically have a silent main character. Many argue this helps with immersion. It could also be a time, money, and labor-saving decision at the hands of the studio.

In any case, Starfield having a mute protagonist is par for the course for Todd Howard and his team. We could be looking at a different experience if we had Toufexis’ gravelly dialogue guiding us through the cosmos.

Despite major hype for the game, Starfield doesn’t feel like it has the staying power of something like Skyrim. It’s still a good sci-fi game – and the continuous updates will only improve things – but it might be a stretch to think of it as a potential Bethesda classic in years to come.