Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a successful immersive sim prequel that brought the long-dormant franchise into the mainstream limelight again. And was successful enough to get a sequel.
But apparently, the sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, would have followed the previous three games in which each has its own different protagonist. But that plan didn’t happen as they brought back Adam Jensen, Human Revolution’s stoic augmented man with a raspy voice.
According to Jensen’s voice actor Elias Toufexis in an interview with VG 247, he too was surprised to be called up again to reprise the role.
“They called me for the sequel, and it was a great thing to hear because initially-and I don’t know if anybody knows this, I think it’s OK to say this now-initially they were going to make the sequel without Jensen. They were just going to make another Deus Ex game,” Toufexis said.
“And from what I remember when I was told, the marketing team said, ‘No, you can’t do that. Jensen has just bumped into this,’ like I said, this discussion of top videogame characters ever. ‘You can’t just not make a game without him, when you have him ready to go.’ And they agreed, and they continued the story of Human Revolution.”
Adam Jensen may seem like another white guy but with some deep vocal chords, but his character has resonated with a lot of fans. “I never asked for this,” has become his one iconic line, so much that Toufexis is still getting tweets from fans referencing that line. Jensen was too iconic to not using him again, even if it means retconning Human Revolution’s ending to set up the events of Mankind Divided.
The whole interview by VG 247 is a good read, which also revealed how Toufexis got more control of his performance as Jensen for Mankind Divided. We praised his performance back when we reviewed the game, and now we got more details on why it was so.
Unfortunately, the interview reveals that there are still no plans to continue Jensen’s arc in another Deus Ex game, as the series is still on hiatus.
Source: VG 247