Jack Black? Nope!

So, a lot of people, me included, though that the voice at the end of the Dead Island 2 trailer was Jack Black. They even briefly talked about it on one of the LIVE! shows, speculating about if it was him, and if so why they didn't make a big deal about it.

Well! Turns out it's not him. He just now did an AMA on Reddit, and someone asked him. His reply was kinda great:

I learned a few things about this. One, there was a Kung Fu Panda TV Show. Two, they most likely got a Jack Black impersonator for the Dead Island 2 trailer. Now the question is, why? Why have a such distinctive voice in a trailer? Was it just a random fluke, or did they plan this for some reason? Seems a bit odd to do this deliberately, but also odd for it to be a total accident.

It really did sound JUST like him.

Huh. Well, that's that. I guess it would make sense for them to say something about it if it really was him.

Huh.

I now see Jack Black as a dumbass after reading what he wrote.

Well, at least we have an answer.

no fun allowed

Not related to fun at all.

Yeah, that's a weird thing for Deep Silver to do.

The impersonator is pretty damn good at his job. When I heard it I didn't go, "Is that Jack Black?" I just thought, "Oh they got Jack Black."

I'd buy the shit out of a Dead Island game featuring Jack Black and Kyle Gass as two of the survivors.

Now I'm sad....

That's really strange if they did purposefully get an impersonator.

Why? Seems like he just types as he talks, and was adding sentences as he watched. A little odd to read, but nothing that says "dumbass".

They got a Jack Blackalike.

You son of a...

This is just like thinking that Superman from Lego Batman 3 sounded just like Chris Parnell, but it wasn't him. Surprised that the voice actor wasn't Jack Black, it sounds just like him.

Now all we need is an Aaron Paul AMA to see if the other voice was just an Aaron Paul impersonator.

If it helps he was probably high when he wrote that.

I respect your view but I stand by my assessment.

Jack Black doesn't know what a CGI trailer is but I'm glad he liked what they put together. Anyway, yeah it sounds like an impersonator but I honestly don't mind, I can see why Jack Black might though.

Edit: Er, I should say sound alike not impersonator.

Your assessment is incorrect.

there seems to be consistant theme of misdirection with all of dead island trailers.

Now you're just being dumb. Accept the fact someone has a different opinion than you and can see others differently.

Err, okay? I wasn't arguing, I was just curious.

@shagge: I wasn't arguing either. Just wasn't into how he portrayed himself.

@everettescott: Maybe you could explain why, I'm sure that would clear up any confusion.

I've seen the Kung Fu Panda TV show and had no idea it wasn't Jack Black. I had suspected based only on the fact that I couldn't imagine him having the time/getting payed enough for a kid's TV show. I shrugged it off and just figured he might be crazy devoted to the Po character, and wanted to be involved. It wouldn't be out of the norm for him, as I can't imagine DoubleFine is able to pay him all that much for his work on Broken Age.

I can only guess that they used a Jack Black impersonator in the trailer in order to drum up excitement about the game and possibly convince their publisher to give them enough money to actually hire Jack Black. Or, they just wanted to get it out there so when people hear the name Dead Island 2, they say, "hey isn't that the game that Jack Black is in?" without realizing that he isn't.

To think Deep Silver got a Jack Black impersonator is absurd. If you listen to it a second time closely, he only sounds like Jack Black for one line, otherwise the rest of the time he talks he sounds a little different and a lot less Jack Black ish

Your assessment that I'm being dumb is incorrect. That's an opinion, and can't be confirmed by a single party

Yeah I'd say that second voice sounded more like Aaron Paul than the first sounded like Jack Black.

lol. I was thinking the exact same thing. The trailer makes me want to be excited, but after the bait-and-switch that was the first game's trailer and the actual game, I'm super skeptical about Dead Island 2. Hopefully the game will be as great as the trailer, but history tells me this likely won't be the case.

It's not impossible the game could end being something like this. The trailer comes off like a GTA/Zombieland style popculture/social satire humor game. But the first game was just so notorious for it's trailer but the game turned out to be half way decent if you kept your expectations in check.

Hell, it's also possible this could have been farmed out to another developer, Techland have Dying Light and Hellraid to handle. Techland is a weird company with inconsistent quality in their releases, that's why we are all skeptical.

@heyguys:

I thought I did? Just the things he said and the way it came across. Someone pointed out 'he may have been high', seemed to be a good way to describe how he sounded. I have nothing against him in a serious way. Just how you responded on the AMA sounded very dumb to me.

You're getting confused or off track, my 'assessment' was about my opinion on Mr Black, not you. I was saying that you we're being dumb, (not you ARE dumb, mind you. Wasn't trying to insult) by seeming to imply I can't form my own opinion about another human being.

were*

@thehumandove: thanks? I can't tell if you're just being a jerk or irrelevant to the discussion now.

@crithon: I think the trailer did a good job establishing the tone of the game so even without any game play it got me excited for a series that I had given up on. Like you said though that's assuming the trailer reflects the game at all.

He is pretty good: it would also seems Troy Baker is in it but of course he is.

I'm honestly surprised that it wasn't Jack Black.

And now, you make me sad that we won't be getting that.

Its funny how stoked he was about the graphics in the trailer. Also now I can't unhear Aaron Paul. Maybe their entire game is going to be populated by celebrity sound a likes. That would be hilarious.

yes.... but again, Techland has such a spotty record, not everyone enjoyed Riptide and a lot of people skipped out on Gunslinger's unique art style and storytelling. Like every other game of theirs is the bad one handled by an outside developer, and now they announced 3 other games. And this trailer does seem like Santa Monica pier beach scene to set a zombie game is a good idea to just have some humor with it.

Man, I hope they released this just to get some buzz going so that they could approach Jack Black and Aaron Paul and be like, "look, guys, you could totally be the life of this game, or, we could just hire these dudes who sound like you."

This is Yager. Guys who did Spec Ops: The Line. I have high hopes.

@crithon: Techland has nothing to do with this. They are making Dying Light, another Dead Island-like but with parkour and for a different publisher (Warner)

Well that helps out a lot..... and also keeps this trailer in question.

@corruptedevil: yes.... but Hellraid that's techland for deep silver on the new dying light engine? that was mentioned on the Giantbomb end of day 1 I believe. Again it's weird keeping track of these guys, another developer handles this, they do that, you miss that, and you missed out on the good one.

@crithon: Definitely. I heard Yager took over a while back, but it totally slipped my mind. I got really confused when I saw this trailer, thinking Techland was working on two zombie games. A coworker set me straight. It's kind of weird though. Deep Silver owns Dead Island, but not Techland. So, they hired Yager to make the next Dead Island. Techland, I guess, wanted to make something new or maybe WB just wanted to have their own zombie thing now (who doesn't?). I mean, this is the type of shit that used to happen all the time. I didn't think these bigger independent studios still really existed. But maybe it's only a matter of time before Techland and Yager belong to some bigger company.

I had to listen pretty closely to get the Jack Black association, but it's definitely in the same ball park. If they got an "impersonator" or just told someone to sound gooft and Jack Black-ish, who can say.

The other guy did sound like Aaron Paul at the very end though.

In a world where Dead Rising exists, I can see them making a humorous open world zombie game. In terms of tone, Dead Island's story was faithful to its trailer. It was incredibly self serious to the point of boredom. Dead Island was different from the emotional trailer because of the very nature that it's a cooperative RPG about brutally mutilating zombies with crazy modified weapons, not because they weren't shooting for a serious tone. By it's very nature, it wasn't going to hit anywhere near the emotional beats of that trailer. Then again, I never really saw the big deal with Dead Island's initial trailer.

The only thing I would be worried about is that quality of the jokes won't be as funny as the trailer. Dead Island 2 was probably the funniest trailer at E3, more so than Sunset Overdrive's.

The guy in the trailer is wearing Jack Blackface.