The actor Neil Newbon is known for his role as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3. As a Fallout fan, he also signed up for a spin-off of the game series. But when he offered to work on the project unpaid, his request was initially ignored by the developers.
What game is it about? Neil Newbon signed on for a voice role in Fallout: London. This is a DLC-sized modification to Fallout 4 from “Team FOLON” that brings you to the UK with a new character.
The team has been working on the mod since 2019 and released it in July 2024. They previously postponed the project because Bethesda thwarted plans with an update for Fallout 4.
As a Fallout fan, Neil Newbon offered to take part in the project and contacted the team. Apparently the person who read his request didn’t know who it was about. The message was left unanswered.
Fallout: London is a mod for Fallout 4. You can see a trailer here:
Fallout: London Launch Trailer
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“Uh, why is Neil Newbon in your mailbox?”
Why was Neil Newbon ignored? In an interview with VG247, Fallout: London project manager Dean Carter explained how the situation came about. Neil Newbon contacted him via Twitter and expressed his interest in the project. “We get a lot of messages like that, and I just missed it,” Carter notes. He also had no idea who Neil Newbon was.
However, his team then saw that he had a message from the actor in his inbox. According to Carter, they practically shouted, “Please answer this man, get him on board.” That’s how Neil Newbon got a small supporting role in Fallout: London.
Dean Carter remembers how the supporting role became an entire quest:
We basically gave him a small supporting role, something very small. But he wanted more, he had fun playing the character Barry the Boat. The entire Barry the Boat quest was basically Neil Newbon’s idea because he wanted more to do with the project. We ended up having to write this entire quest because he wanted more to do. […] We had great fun working with him.
What does “Astarion” say about this? According to PCGamer, Newbon told GINX TV that he sent a request to the team behind Fallout: London. However, it was ignored for “about a year, maybe even two years.” He was a Fallout fan, so he offered to help them. “None of us got paid. We just did it because we wanted to do it,” said the actor.
In a post on X, Newbon explains in a short video from the Golden Joysticks account that Fallout: London is a “really, really amazing mod.” It doesn’t feel like a mod, but like DLC.
It is a complete game. “I think it’s a really nice love letter to Fallout, which is also one of my favorite game series of all time. And being a part of it was just really cool,” Newbon says in the video.
But his role as Astarion also seems to mean a lot to the actor. In November 2023, Neil Newbon was honored at the Golden Joystick Awards for the role in Baldur’s Gate 3. This is an annual video game awards ceremony in the UK. You can find out more here: Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion’s speaker wins an award, gives a touching acceptance speech – “This character means the world to me”