Baldur's Gate 3 Star Neil Newbon Hopes to Play Astarion Again

Neil Newbon, the actor behind Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3, has said that he still hopes to portray the character again in the future. Since its launch this past year, Newbon has been receiving tons of acclaim for his work in bringing Astarion to life. Not only is Astarion himself arguably the most popular character in BG3, but Newbon went on to win the award for "Best Performance" at The Game Awards to close 2023. Following this huge wave of success, Newbon is now making it known that he's very much down to continue playing Astarion in different forms of media. 

Speaking to IGN, Newbon said opened up about Astarion and how he feels about a potential return to the role. Newbon said that typically, he's quite content with moving on from one part to another in his career as a voice actor. With Astarion, though, he said that he doesn't feel this way as the character "is still very much alive" within him. Newbon acknowledged that it's not his call to bring back Astarion in a new story, but if he were asked to reprise the role, he'd almost certainly do it. 

"Most characters, once I've finished with the work, especially on long jobs, and this was a particularly long job, I usually have a compartmentalization and it's like, 'Great, that's done.' I'm happy moving forward to the next role," Newbon said. "With Astarion, his rhythm is still very much alive inside me somewhere and I feel I'm not done with him. But you know, it's not my call. Hopefully, at some point, I get to reprise him. I'd love to do that, but we'll have to wait and see."

If Newbon does end up playing Astarion again, it seemingly won't be as part of Baldur's Gate 3. Within the past month, developer Larian Studios announced that it's not working on any new expansions or DLC for BG3. Beyond this, the studio also said that its next game won't be Baldur's Gate 4, despite the requests from fans. 

Fortunately, Baldur's Gate 3 is based set within the expansive world of Dungeons & Dragons, which is owned by Wizards of the Coast. As such, Larian isn't the sole company involved with ensuring that Newbon could reprise Astarion. If Wizards of the Coast happened to create a Dungeons & Dragons video game, movie, or TV series that would feature the character, then Newbon could always return to voice Astarion in that manner. For the time being, though, there is no such confirmation that Astarion will be back in other D&D media just yet.