Graha Voice Actor Change?

[bunnymoon]

In theatre, they announce when the understudy will be taking over.

"Due to scheduling conflicts, G'raha Tia was voiced by [blank] in this patch."

"Don't worry, Jonathan Bailey hasn't gone anywhere."

An announcement like that would be so easy.

[SicariusSeven]

1) I heard that Bailey hurt their voice during Wicked. This might have been recorded during that time. If so, let the guy recover.
2) If this is a recast, then don't hate on the new guy. This likely got put on them with little warning. SE just needs to explain if it was a recast or not. It's jarring but I'm not going to start hating on the new guy. They are clearly trying.

[bunnymoon]

Wicked, both parts, began filming in 2021 and officially wrapped the beginning of 2024. The interview, from 2024, where he mentions a swollen tongue, was referring to something that happened in 2018-2019.

Johnny's a very busy man, and has been very busy since 2018, but there's a lot of confusion regarding the timeline of his work going around. This year, 2025, he was in a four month long run of Richard II AS Richard II, filming on Bridgerton season 4, and the press tours of Jurassic World Rebirth and Wicked For Good.

[paradisea]

Wicked, both parts, began filming in 2021 and officially wrapped the beginning of 2024. The interview, from 2024, where he mentions a swollen tongue, was referring to something that happened in 2018-2019.

This. It's tiring that people keep bringing this up when even is this thread many have clarified this point several times.

Also, once again, no one is hating on the new guy. No one even knows the new guy. People wanting to keep Bailey, who, again, has been playing G'raha for seven years, isn't hating on the new guy. People want G'raha to keep sounding like G'raha, and G'raha sounds like Bailey, who has a pretty recognizable voice and had always delivered an outstanding performance. No replacement would ever be able to truly fill his shoes, and that's nobody's fault. The guy is just a cut above most actors.

Fans want Bailey because he's Bailey—because he is G'raha. Fans deserve to know what happened to Bailey in this patch and what they should expect from G'raha in the future. Fans don't deserve to be left in the dark.

[bunnymoon]

I made a post on my Bluesky of the game's patch history since 4.4 and major events in Bailey's career. So we can all be on the same page about this. He has ALWAYS been a busy man.

[peachsyder]

I made a post on my Bluesky of the game's patch history since 4.4 and major events in Bailey's career. So we can all be on the same page about this. He has ALWAYS been a busy man.

Whoa, amazing work in compiling this. This really proves that Bailey has been extremely busy from the very start of his run as G'raha.

... And yet he has never once sounded the way he did 7.4. I'll just invite everyone clinging with certainty that this is definitely Bailey and calling recast concerns "overreactions" to reflect on that. But again, that's not the main debate—the obfuscation of his voice from the trailer and the lack of clarity from SE is.

(Additionally, this really shows that no matter how busy he got, Bailey never gave up on G'raha. Ever.)

[PaulH]

I made a post on my Bluesky of the game's patch history since 4.4 and major events in Bailey's career. So we can all be on the same page about this. He has ALWAYS been a busy man.

Nice timeline thanks, and I got to meet JB in C*ck the play I am not sure if that word would cause issues here lol. Great actor, lovely man and well I can only hope he remains as voice actor for G'raha. Like others have echoed it would be nice to get some clarity on what is going on if anything. I will take optimistic view he is still a VA working on this game till I see a credible update.

[bardings]

I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said but I just wanted to echo those asking for some transparency from SE and/or the localization team. I waited to complete the patch before posting this because I wanted to hear the whole performance and to me it just does not sound like JB, and I would be lying if I said that didn't make me feel a little sad.

[KihyiFelhede]

I really can't say with confidence whether or not it's Bailey, but I will say that poor voice setup and direction can go a long way (I do feel confident in bashing the setup even for a recast, it's jarring to hear the difference between the characters sometimes). Even the most talented female VAs often come out sounding like a knockoff Minnie Mouse when the director is negligent. Some of those takes really should've been redone, regardless of who was voicing them. To my ears, the accent is inconsistent between lines and at times the intonation is more akin to a shonen anime dub than the current FFXIV style. Voice direction as a whole in the games dubbing industry has really taken a turn for the worse recently imo, but I digress.

[Eloah]

For those unable to tell, it is Jonathan Bailey, his voice is obviously just sore. You can tell it's him when he talks later in the patch, as certain vocal patterns match his. This is similar to when people thought Cid was recast, but the voice was just different because the VA had throat surgery. Only time will tell if SE will re-record these lines, similar to the Wuk Lamat lines in The Interphos trial. Plus if it helps Bailey himself said he loves the character and wouldn't give up voicing him for anything. If he was to be replaced, we'd probably hear something from him. Besides the HW shift, no VAs have been replaced unless an actor had passed away.