Wil Wheaton Interview – I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar

Schell Games’ I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar is releasing later this month, with one of those titular characters, John Juniper, being voiced by Wil Wheaton. Wheaton is no newcomer when it comes to video game voice acting roles, having been featured in titles like Brütal Legend, DC Universe Online, and Fallout: New Vegas over the years, but I Expect You To Die 2 is the actor’s first VR project.

The core of I Expect You To Die 2’s story – one which takes much more center stage in the sequel’s opening levels than the original title – revolves around the character of John Juniper, and players will grow quite familiar with Wheaton’s voice over the game’s six missions. Picking up after the end of the original I Expect You To Die, players will begin IEYTD2 by being tasked to protect Wheaton’s character at all costs – something which people returning from the first game will know is easier said than done.

Recently, Screen Rant spoke to Wil Wheaton about his fondness for characters like John Juniper, how he ended up in I Expect You To Die 2, and why people enjoy games that force players to make horrible, uncomfortable decisions.

What drew you to the role of John Juniper?

I was asked by Khris Brown, who directed the game, if I would participate. And I love her. I had the incredible pleasure of working with her years ago – I want to say the first game we worked on together was Brütal Legend, but I don’t know if I have the timeline correct.

But every time we have worked together, on roles large and small, it has been so fun and so satisfying. There’s maybe half a dozen people in this world who can say, “Hey, would you come do this thing for me?” and I will say yes without even knowing what it is. Khris Brown is one of those people. If she’s like, “Hey, I want you to do this thing in my game,” my answer is, “Just tell me when when to show up and where to go.”

You’ve been in a good bit of video games – Fallout: New Vegas, DC Universe Online, Grand Theft Auto V, and lots of other things over the years. How do you find recording for VR to be different, as opposed to any of those past roles?

It wasn’t different at all. The experience for me is still the same.

The ultimate gameplay experience is going to be different for the player, but for me, my responsibilities and the way that I approach the work is all the same: it’s all voice work. That skill set is the same, without regard of how the game is ultimately released.

In terms of voice work, have you found there to be a difference when it comes to video game voice work as opposed to TV or film?

Occasionally, some. Not really. Very rarely does something happen that is specific to games. A great example, in what I’m going to call traditional narrative animation, is that I just go through the script. If I’m lucky, I’m working with other actors in the room, and we’re just doing a performance and bringing it to life.

When I’m working on a game, I’m going through that script, but more often than not I’m doing three to four reads of each line, because we don’t quite know what the designer is going to want to give the player when everything is finally put together.

Also, we’ll have these things at the end of the session – in some cases, just pages of call outs. Screams like, “I got hit!” or “I got hurt!” or “I’m exerting effort,” those sorts of things. That tends to be, in gaming, unique; that thing where we just go through [one-off lines]. And everybody talks about it like it’s the worst, when you have to do pages of “Ahhh!” and that kind of thing.

I imagine that wears you out after a while, just pretending that you got punched over and over again.

It wears me out real fast.

Did you play the first I Expect You To Die to get into the mindset of what type of game this would be? Or do you simply have a love of this kind of 1950s noir genre?

I was familiar with the original game. I was familiar with the genre. I’m already a fan of the 50s and 60s Saul Bass style of North by Northwest or Vertigo. I love that color palette and those visual angles, and all of that.

There’s an arch quality to the performance that is endemic to that genre, and I was really excited to play with that arch quality.

John Juniper, without giving too much away, is kind of a duplicitous character. Do you enjoy those types of roles, where there’s more going on underneath the surface than maybe the people who are watching you know?

It’s so much fun to play a character who has a secret. It’s so much fun to play a character who knows something that is going on that nobody else knows, whether that is narratively significant or not. Just to be able to bring that extra layer of mystery, I guess, to a performance is extremely satisfying.

What I am thinking about as an actor is that the player is being driven to a point where they’re gonna go, “Holy crap, I had no idea!” The fact that I get to be part of that, and I know that I’m building towards that, makes the misdirection really fun. And it just makes it that much more satisfying for me when someone who has played the game is like, “Man, I just did not see that coming.” It feels really good. It’s fun. I’m like, “Oh, cool. I managed to participate in your entertainment, and I feel very good about that.”

Is there any particular standout moment in I Expect You To Die 2 that you’re very excited for people to get to see? Without spoiling anything, obviously.

There’s this moment where we set the player up, and it’s like, “Here is this incredibly complicated series of things you need to do.” It is possible for the player to throw two switches metaphorically and solve the puzzle very quickly, and there’s this moment where I say something like, “I honestly did not expect you to solve that as quickly as you did. Way to go, buddy!”

It breaks the fourth wall in a meta way that was extremely satisfying for me to portray. I don’t think a lot of players are going to get that particular piece of dialogue from me, but for those who do, I think it will be very satisfying.

Having been in so many, I assume that you enjoy video games to some extent. Are those your favorite types of moments in games? What moments in games have really stood out to you?

My favorite moment in a narrative video game is when I have to make a terrible choice. People play games for different reasons, and we get different things out of our narrative experiences. Games that I have really loved are Fable, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto V – these big war stories with incredibly long narrative arcs.

When the game designers have invested me in the character I am playing, but they’ve also managed to invest me in the supporting characters – and now here comes this choice where I have to betray someone that I love, or I have to make a choice that could not be more wrong for what this character is doing. But that’s the only way the game goes forward. I love these incredibly fraught, incredibly weighty, incredibly difficult moments.

I remember in Dragon Age… there was there’s a moment where my character is completely in love with one of the other characters, and she’s like, “Here’s the deal, buddy. You’re gonna [have sex with] me and put a demon in me, and we’re gonna end the world together, or I’m leaving.” I was like, “I need to take a walk,” and I paused the game. And I was so upset, because I love her, and we’re gonna spend our lives together. And it’s such an incredibly meaningful moment, but the world is at stake and I can’t go along with that. How can you give me this terrible ultimatum?

I found out after I had gone through it, that no matter who you played – because you could choose lots of different narrative characters – and no matter what relationship you chose, the designers of that game forced a similar choice at that moment in the game on everyone who played it.

I just thought that was really brave, and I thought it was great to take a game that you’ve got 80 hours into and force the player to make a decision that does not have a good outcome. There is no good outcome. You just have to live with it. I love moments like that.

I had a very similar thing with Telltale games, the very first season of their Walking Dead game.

I have a ton of respect for game designers who are able to do that; to force those choices, and to make them pay off, no matter how you end up resolving them.

That’s one of the things I loved about this particular game, and one of the aspects of this particular character I really liked. We’re driving the player in a particular direction for the entire game, and we really need buy-in from the player. There’s a lot of responsibility on me to make that character believable and compelling and interesting. And I think we did it.

If a movie or a TV show that hasn’t yet been turned into a video game could become one where you could make those types of choices, which would you love to see?

I don’t have a good answer for that.

I’m gonna give you a deeply unsatisfying answer that really challenges and tears apart the premise of the question: we play video games for very different reasons than we watch movies or read books or listen to music or experience passive entertainment. And every game I’ve had the privilege to be part of – and I’m so lucky, with just the accolades I’ve received from the industry and the games that I’ve been part of that have been recognized by the industry for doing cool things – we received those accolades because they really only work in video games.

Star Trek is a thing that is an enormous part of my life; that I’m crazy about and that I absolutely love. There are these amazing Star Trek simulators, like Starship Bridge simulators and really amazing, complicated Starfleet Battle simulators. There’s an online Star Trek game, and I believe they just opened up access to Wesley Crusher as a playable character for the very first time. That kind of stuff is super cool, and it’s really satisfying to be in. It feels like, “Way to go, kid! You’re getting some accolades. Good for you, buddy!” And I feel really excited about that.

But with the things that I’ve done that are games, and the things that I’ve done that are not games, I’m really grateful and really privileged that I just get to work as an entertainer in different mediums. And, hopefully, the characters I create in those different mediums stand out for the audience – whether that audience is a person just watching a movie or a TV show, or a person playing a game.

I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar releases on August 24, 2021, on SteamVR, Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, and PSVR.

About The Author

Christopher J. Teuton
(694 Articles Published)

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Christopher J. Teuton is an author, game developer, film director, and producer based out of Savannah, GA, in the United States. Owner of Filthy & Free Publishing. When not working on his various projects, acting as Screen Rant’s gaming editor, or spending time with his family, Christopher J. Teuton mostly enjoys playing with dogs and climbing on trees.

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