Voice actors thought AI would steal their jobs – but apparently Twitch streamers are the real threat

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Some well-known German Twitch streamers will be heard in the upcoming animated film Transformers One. This has sparked criticism. Shouldn’t professional voice actors do this instead?

This is the situation: There is currently a big discussion on social media about the upcoming animated film Transformers One, which is supposed to shed light on the history of the famous Autobots. The film boasts a star-studded cast – at least in the original English dubbing. Several Hollywood stars can be heard:

  • Chris Hemsworth (Thor) as Optimus Prime
  • Jon Hamm (Mad Men) as Sentinel Prime
  • Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) as Elita
  • Laurence Fishburne (Matrix) as Alpha Trion

    • For the German dubbing, however, a slightly different approach was taken. Several of the larger supporting roles were given to influencers. Some people don’t like that at all.

    Do you recognize these German Twitch streamers by their dubbing voices in video games?

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    Do influencers ruin films?

    What is the criticism? The German cast is currently being widely criticized on social networks. The general tone seems to be: leave the German dubbing to the professionals, i.e. professional voice actors. Many accuse those responsible of using influencers to profit from their reach. Quality is sacrificed for this.

    Timm, who reviews films on the YouTube channel “Filmriss,” shared some members of the German cast on X, asking them to “just stop it.” The post was viewed almost a million times.

    Later, the YouTuber followed up with excerpts from the new German trailer and the sentence: “This is even worse than feared.” (via X)

    Dubbing artist criticizes: Marketing comes before quality

    Voice actor Tom Ferenc, who also streams on Twitch, is harsh in his assessment: he can only be ashamed. The influencers’ dubbing performance is “infinitely affected, read, not an act and, in the end, marketing before quality.”

    For “real voice actors” like him, this is “a slap in the face.” Especially since these are people who have not learned the job but are paid “20 times” as much (via X).

    Twitch streamers don’t think it’s that bad

    Are there any dissenting voices? There are some, too. Other content creators in particular apparently cannot understand the criticism so well.

  • Twitch streamer Baso asks why the comments are so mean, saying it’s “a really cool opportunity to say 1 or 2 sentences in a film.” (via X) In a separate post, she explained that she would like to speak a small role herself, but given the hate, she’d probably better keep it to herself (via X).
  • Papaplatte sees the problem more with the companies behind such decisions. After all, it is clear that you would accept such a role if it was offered to you. And the fact that large companies use influencers to sell their products is nothing new – that’s just how the world works (via TikTok).
  • Twitch streamer MrMoregame calls for people to wait and see. After all, not all of them are automatically bad (via X).

    • Author explains: The blame lies with the production companies

    The author of the post later clarified that his criticism was never directed at the influencers themselves, but that he was happy for them to have this opportunity. He also did not want to be the face of the hatred that the whole thing has now brought with it.

    The YouTuber explains: There is nothing wrong with cameos, i.e. short guest appearances, but with larger supporting roles or a lot of small roles, the casting can ruin the film. He cites Gronkh and Knossi as examples of successful dubbing of influencers (via X).

    In Germany, people have a love/hate relationship with dubbing

    Why is this a big issue? Especially in animated films, the trend in English-speaking countries to cast celebrities instead of trained voice actors has been a topic for some time. Chris Pratt, for example, received harsh criticism for his role as “Mario.”

    In this country, however, it is not just animated films that are dubbed, as in the USA, but pretty much everything. The German dubbing culture has the reputation of being one of the best and most complex in the world. Despite all the purists who like to proclaim that they only watch everything in the original language.

    Our colleagues at MoviePilot even list 10 films and series where the German dubbing is better than the original.

    Given the high quality standards of the German dubbing, relying on influencer fame instead of quality – in the eyes of critics – seems to be particularly bad news. Especially since it is not an option for every viewer to simply switch to the English original instead.

    However, there is also a bit of unintentional humor in the whole discussion, as voice actors have been a recurring topic over the past year, especially in connection with AI. Because the professionals fear that publishers could simply replace them with artificial intelligence as technology advances, a strike was even called in the USA last week – and now the influencers are turning out to be a real threat.

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