It takes a lot of democratic dedication to be the face of Super Earth, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead learned while searching for an actor to play John Helldiver, an idiot and an inspiration.
Former lead writer Russ Nickel reminisces about it in a new episode of Dev Tales on the Helldivers 2 YouTube channel, to commemorate the second Helldivers 2 anniversary. The intergalactic shooter's intro cinematic is now iconic for birthing one John Helldiver, the game's unofficial, white-toothed mascot, but Arrowhead wasn't taking him seriously enough.
"'This is gonna be John Helldiver,'" Nickel remembers thinking. "'We can't just get someone who's good. We need to get the funniest person we can possibly find.'" Arrowhead agreed, but instructed Nickel to find him in no more than seven days. Luckily, Craig Lee Thomas, the actor who ultimately snagged the part, was available and prepared to be patriotic.
Once Thomas learned about John Helldiver, he quickly filmed and sent a self-tape and discovered he was a top-three candidate for the role later that day. "I was like, 'Jesus, they are moving f***ing quick on this,'" Thomas says during his politely bleep-ed Dev Tales interview.
The next day, Arrowhead made sure Thomas had a passport – he was all set to film on Sunday. Nickel had made his deadline.
"'Hey, I'm the cheesiest, most insincere' – that thing is something that I always have fun doing," Thomas says about being John.
"Sorry to all the Johns out there," Nickel adds. But "something that's so key to Super Earth is that all of the citizens totally buy in. They're like, 'Yes, managed democracy is perfect. It's the ideal form of democracy. Yes, I will gladly die for Super Earth, because it's the right thing to do.'"
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