Destiny 2: Dying Cayde-6 Will Not Be Played By Nathan Fillion

Nathan Fillion's Cayde-6 will not return to Destiny 2.

In case it was heartbreaking enough that Nathan Fillion’s Cayde-6 is going to die in Destiny 2‘s Forsaken DLC, it seems that Fillion will not reprise his role for the character’s final appearance. 

Fillion informed Kotaku that he was unavailable to voice the character at the time that Bungie needed to record Cayde-6’s final lines. Instead, Cayde-6 will be voiced by Nolan North (who also voices Destiny‘s Ghost). Ironically, the world just saw a short film featuring Fillion as Nathan Drake; a character voiced by Nolan North in the Uncharted games. 

Unfortunately these things don’t work out and it’s a little bit heartbreaking but if it has to go to someone else, then thank god it goes to someone I absolutely love and the fans love,” said Fillion. “The character was in good hands.”

Fillion also revealed that he was surprised Cayde-6 really is going to die in the next expansion. This makes him one of many Destiny 2 fans who hoped that Cayde-6’s seeming demise in the Forsaken DLC trailer was but a flesh wound. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. 

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“He’s dead. His ghost is dead,” said Bungie Principal Producer Scott Taylor (and confirmed heartless being) in an interview with GamesRadar. “We wanted to establish the tone of the game and show that we’re serious about it. We also want people to process it. You’ll play a mission with him, and you’re not really sure when this is going to happen, or how, so the emotional experience of that would be very different if you just turned on the game, you saw it and it was all just a shock. It’s actually a little more rich and interesting if you have time to sit with it and reflect.”

Prior to Taylor’s statements, many Destiny 2 players felt that there was a good chance Cade-6’s death was simply a marketing ploy. After all, the Nathan Fillion-voiced characters is one of the most beloved members of the Destiny universe. In fact, he offered a great deal of humor, personality, and character at a time when Destiny was largely devoid of such things. 

Of course, that’s precisely the reason that Bungie decided to kill him off. They feel that they needed players to truly hate the lead villains in the upcoming Forsaken DLC and that the best way to accomplish that would be to have said villains brutally murder one of Destiny‘s most beloved characters. It’s a lot like how nobody really hated Game of Thrones‘ Ramsay Bolton until he killed the most beloved member of the Stark family, Rickon Stark. 

“We built out from those early ideas about loss and revenge and a western atmosphere, lawless frontier and this horrible thing happening,” said Taylor to Eurogamer. “It was always Cayde and it was always that idea.”

Bungie has also stated that they have plans for what to do about Cayde 6’s missions now that he is dead, but they are not ready to reveal the details of those plans at this time.