Summary
Baldur’s Gate 3’scast of characters are brilliant, elevated by some wonderful performances by incredibly talented actors. You pick out pretty much any character, and you’d get a great performance, such as Jennifer English as Shadowheart or Samantha Beart as Karlach, but the one that stands out -netting himself an award in the process- was Neil Newbon as Astarion.
It was an incredible performance,helped by Newbon’s genuine love for the character, and now the two are linked forever. Newbon has stated in the past thathe’d be more than happy to reprise his role as Astarion, but the two are so well connected that Newbon says that he’d “have to be dead” for him to allow the character to be recast for a future project.
Speaking with TheGamer at the BAFTA Games 2025 awards ceremony -in which Astro Bot completed yet another impressive sweep- we asked Newbon for his thoughts on a potential recast for Astarion if whichever studio makes Baldur’s Gate 4 decided not to bring him on board, to which he immediately responded that he would “hunt them down and gut them like a fish” and that he’d “have to be dead” before he let it happen.
Thankfully, he did also give us a serious answer:
“Listen, I have no control over that, so, ultimately, if somebody played him in something else, I’d just hope that they’d come at it the same way I did, in terms of looking at the core character and their life story and their history and their backstory, and honor that story as much as possible, and not run to a trope. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I hope I get to play him again.”
Hopefully, we never have to live in a world in which we don’t see Newbon take on the role of Astarion. However, if it does happen, the studio making Baldur’s Gate 4 will have to put that poor actor in protective custody, because Newbon will be coming for them.
