Reuben Langdon Canceled as Ken Masters in Street Fighter over libertarian opinions

It’s been some time since we learned longtime Ken Masters voice actor Reuben Langdon was recast. At the time neither Capcom nor Langdon commented on the decision – until now.

Controversy and Out-of-Context Reporting

To recap: three years ago articles from Newsweek and other commentary on Langdon’s personal beliefs were taken out of context, which Langdon has now confirmed led to him being dropped as the voice of Ken Masters.

Reuben previously appeared on a podcast with YouTubers Hero Hei and Yellow Flash, where they discussed a number of hot issues including #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and allegations towards another voice actor Vic Mignogna.

Langdon was later asked for an interview by Newsweek to clarify his statements, to which he agreed but when he said he couldn’t comment on the Mignogna situation, an article later came out that lambasted Langdon as a right-wing extremist.

“This Newsweek article came out and was basically taking things that I had said in the interview out of context, or with no context, and just saying ‘Reuben said this and this about Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, that I’m a right-wing extremist, that I’m a UFO alien believer, crazy nut case,” the actor said.

 

He then noted that two months earlier, Newsweek did a very positive article and interview with him and his coverage of the possibility of extraterrestrial life, which is confusing when compared to their other post taking comments out of context.

Ken Masters Recast Decision

Previously, Langdon was the voice of Ken Masters in all his iterations from [Street Fighter IV] in 2008 all the way up to [Super Smash Bros. Ultimate].

After the negative and out-of-context reporting on Langdon, people contacted Capcom regarding the situation, which allegedly prompted the developer to recast Ken Masters.

“Some people wrote Capcom, particularly (Street Fighter series producer Yoshinori) Ono-san,” Langdon said. “He saw it, and I guess he lost his shit. He didn’t understand the nuances and didn’t bother to reach out to me to ask ‘What the hell’s going on?’ He got super scared and actually called, I remember this very clearly because this was a few days before E3 started – my partner calls me and he goes ‘Reuben! What the f–k did you do!’, and I’m like, ‘What do you mean?! I didn’t do anything!’

“‘You don’t realize how much damage you’ve done! You just lost us the Street Fighter gig!’ He said, ‘Because of that Newsweek article, we, the company (Just Cause Productions) that I was no longer a part of, actually lost a multi-million dollar gig’, because Ono, in a sense, thought that I was still part of the company, which I wasn’t, didn’t do any research, any homework, didn’t look into it or even bother to have a conversation.”

Despite attempts to arrange a meeting with Street Fighter series producer Yoshinori Ono to clarify the situation, Langdon was ultimately recast as Ken Masters.

“I tried to arrange a meeting so I could sit down with Ono-san and explain what happened, that this was all taken out of context, this was not the case, it was a hit piece from this Newsweek guy. But Ono-san wouldn’t have it. He wouldn’t even take a meeting. It was crazy,” Langdon said.

Continued Work on Devil May Cry

Langdon went on to confirm that despite being recast in Street Fighter, he’s still playing Dante in Capcom’s other hit franchise: [Devil May Cry].

“A few months after that, (Devil May Cry director Hideaki) Itsuno-san calls up and says ‘Hey, Reuben, can you come back to Japan and do a mo-cap? We’re going to do a special edition of Devil May Cry V.’ So I went back, and I asked Itsuno-san and my partner too, ‘What’s the deal? How come you guys didn’t flip out over ‘Reuben’s Newsweek article?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, we just looked into it, and it’s fine.'”

“So the Devil May Cry team looked into and saw what a bunch of BS it was,” Langdon said. “Including Itsuno-san, they did the research, and totally validated that I didn’t say anything to offend anybody or I wasn’t whatever Newsweek tried to make me out as, all the lies. So it was fine!”

He added, “I haven’t talked to Itsuno-san lately. As far as I know, our relationship’s fine, I haven’t been cancelled, I haven’t been spanked I’m sure I would be told otherwise.”

Lastly, Langdon confirmed he wasn’t hired for the Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat smartphone game due to budgetary limits, not his beliefs or comments on controversial issues.

We’ve reached out to Capcom for a comment on the story and will update if provided clarification.