The voice of Darkest Dungeon’s iconic narrator, Wayne June, passed away in 2025, but before his passing he gave Red Hook Studios express permission to train AI on his voice for the purposes of future games of the series. The studio’s co-founder said they would never.
Answering to a Reddit thread regarding the potential future narration options Red Hook could use, Chris Bourassa, under username u/RedHookChris chimed in, explaining the situation:
“In one of his last emails to me, Wayne gave us permission to train an AI on his voice, something he’d staunchly opposed prior to the end. We’d never asked to do it. I think he was trying to put the game/team/fans first – offer us a ‘way forward’. I declined, and we donated to his family anyway,”
he writes. Despite this permission, the studio chooses to honor the late actor by not feeding his voice to a machine:
“I would never, ever erode his incredible and timeless performances by teaching a machine to sound like him. His voice and delivery was *human, and I’m forever grateful I got to write for him,” writes RedHookChris
This is an admirable stance. Digital necromancy has faced criticism in the neighboring movie industry before, while the usage of generative AI, especially for inherently creative, artistic purposes, is a topic of heated and complicated debate for multiple industries and audiences.
The responses from the series fans to the statement were almost uniformly positive, reflecting the fanbase’s appreciation for Wayne June’s performance.
Darkest Dungeon
Release Date: January 19, 2016
Genres: Role-playing (RPG), Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Adventure, Indie, Tactical