Voice Actors for G5 · 10:27am Aug 14th, 2021
I constantly hear "we can't afford to keep this cast" for the regular series. Well, let's break down each of the main voice actors and see what we have.
Vanessa Hudgens: When people think of Vanessa Hudgens they immediately think of High School Musical and to be honest, that isn't a good thing. Why is that not a good thing? It is because it means that she hasn't gotten that big success after that she would have hoped that would catapult her career. She has been in a lot of things, but it has all been things that have gotten poor reception for the most part. She is in need of that great big spring board project and MLP could very well be that project to associate her with something else than a TV movie over a decade old, especially since it lets her play to her biggest strength as an actress—she can sing. Nabbing the lead role and getting to showcase her talent is an ideal situation for her, and voice acting is not nearly as time demanding as other acting (though it requires some talent still and this will be her first real attempt at it). Given herhistory, she probably commands a smaller salary than a top-tier voice actor like Tara Strong or Mark Hammel.
Kimiko Glenn: Kimiko Glenn is the most seasoned voice actor out of the main cast (there are some equally seasoned voice actors in the supporting cast, but in terms of main cast she is the veteran). Kimiko Glenn is a voice actor on the rise with plenty of series work. She is currently the lead role in another Netflix animated series, Centaurworld, which I believe is running on a smaller budget. She played Lena in the recent Ducktales series and had an ongoing role in the Bojack Horseman series. People recently have been going "oh that is Penny Parker from Into the Spiderverse movie" which is true, but that was a relatively minor role for her in her voice acting record since she had very few speaking lines. Taking the number 2 role in the MLP G5 is in line with her career with where it is at and she honestly could have taken the lead role fine as she has demonstrated she is an excellent voice actor and singer.
James Marsden: James Marsden has the distinction of being in the most theatrical release movies that had box office success, however, he has not catapulted himself into being any sort of household name. He is drawn to working with popular pop-culture franchises (X-Men and Sonic the Hedgehog) and has some comedy tools which makes MLP a good fit for him.
Sofia Carson: Much of what can be said about Vaness Hudgens can be said over again for Sofia Carlson. Strong of popular TV movies and not a lot of success outside of it. Needing to get herself remembered for some other role than just her Disney Channel Originals and has a big strength of being able to sing which she needs to be able to showcase.
Liza Koshy: This is an actress still looking for her big break. To date, her biggest successes have been her YouTube channel and hosting Double Dare reboot for Nickelodeon (which got her nominated for an emmy which shows she does have talent). She has a few film credits, but nothing that makes her name immediately recognizable to audiences.
In short, they signed up five people that have shown that they do have talent, but are in need of roles that will be immediately recognized as they are stalling in their career and stuck being remembered for primarily one or two roles—which for an actor, is you want to be remembered for as many roles as possible and having a string of forgotten roles can be not so great. The only exception being Kimiko Glenn who is the veteran voice avtor of the Mane 5. Getting associated with a big franchise which has a history of putting it's voice actors on display is exactly what most of this actors are looking for with bonuses for those who are getting opportunity to showcase singing talent.
in short Hasbro wanted big names and got them.
in shorter terms you wanted good you got good now they need to pay the fiddler to keep them.
and it is sad they picked from the trash pile to get the ones they did.
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Not really a trash pile, more like investing into currently undervalued stock. It is mutually beneficial. Actors get the value of their stock raised, and Netflix and Hasbro get name a cast with name recognition. The point being, they are not likely to be as expensive as people are thinking and can be retained, and being retained may be ideal for them too.
One thing that I didn't mention, most of them are very happy with being associated with media for kids and young adults, and this will actually be the first time for most of them there is going to be toys going out of the characters they are playing. It might seem silly, but t is something kind of novel and fulfilling to have happen. That "OMG! That's me!" moment as you see the toys for sale and getting reinforced that kids remember your character and a big part of what made them love that character was you.
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Remember when people ragged on RDJ and Chris Evans when they got cast for Iron Man and Captain America? And then they turned those roles into everyone’s favorite superheroes today?
Repeat after me:
Just because they were in bad movies, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad actors.
Apparently, some people still need to be told that.