Seeing household-name actors in major video games is commonplace now — Giancarlo Esposito in Far Cry 6, Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077, J.K. Simmons in Baldur’s Gate 3, or half of Hollywood turning up in Death Stranding 2. While stacked casts are routine in 2025, the wave of big-screen talent moving into games gained real momentum 15 years earlier with Lionhead Studios’ Fable 3.
Launched on October 29, 2010 for Xbox 360, Fable 3 left a mixed but memorable mark. The series had long been an Xbox staple — a fantasy action RPG known for its wry humor and consequential choices — but the third entry was famously rushed into development, debuting to uneven reviews. Microsoft, which owned Lionhead at the time, later steered the studio toward Kinect projects and ultimately shuttered Lionhead in 2016, making Fable 3 the studio’s de facto swan song. Read more about the studio’s troubled production here.
The game takes place 50 years after its predecessor in Albion, a fairy-tale Britain newly entering the industrial age. You begin as a young prince or princess and eventually inherit the throne, where the gameplay shifts into an unexpectedly political second half: ruling a nation means balancing alliances, making hard decisions, and often spending more time conversing with subjects than swinging a sword. Through it all, Fable 3 feels cinematic thanks to a headline voice cast who bring the characters vividly to life.
One of the first voices you encounter is John Cleese as Jasper, the loyal butler who accompanies you throughout the journey. Your antagonist, King Logan — your bitter elder brother — is voiced with deliciously theatrical menace by Michael Fassbender. Early on you join forces with Walter Beck, voiced by Bernard Hill, whose warm, fatherly presence echoes his acclaimed turn as King Théoden in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films.
Those are only the most prominent names. As you pursue Logan you recruit a colorful cast: Naomie Harris voices the revolutionary Page; Adjoa Andoh appears as a sympathetic city-state ruler; Nicholas Hoult turns up as a potential romantic lead if you play as the princess; Simon Pegg portrays the soldier Ben Finn; and Sir Ben Kingsley plays Sabine, the leader of a neighboring realm. Their performances give the world an undeniably cinematic texture.
Big-name actors in games weren’t invented by Fable 3 — Rockstar has long drawn A-list talent for the Grand Theft Auto series, and franchises tied to film and television have frequently crossed over. Actors such as Ray Liotta and Samuel L. Jackson have lent their voices to major titles, while performers like Kirsten Bell, Nathan Fillion, Keith David, and Seth Green have appeared across series including Halo, Mass Effect, and Assassin’s Creed. Adaptations of well-known properties from James Bond to Disney also brought screen actors into games, and notable examples like Ron Perlman narrating Fallout helped normalize the practice.
What made Fable 3 feel like a turning point was its ensemble — not just one or two stars, but a full supporting cast that read like a film’s billing. Today, headline casts in large games are taken for granted, even in smaller projects — from Daisy Ridley, James McAvoy, and Willem Dafoe in the time-loop thriller 12 Minutes, to Aaron Paul and Jeffrey Wright leading the superhero comedy Dispatch. Back in 2010, though, such scale of star power in a single game was still uncommon.
The series itself seems intent on keeping that tradition alive. A new entry, titled simply Fable, is scheduled for 2026 after a delay announced in February 2025. Publisher Xbox Game Studios has kept many details under wraps, but the footage released so far suggests the project will continue to feature notable talent — its 2023 trailer already included BAFTA winner Richard Ayoade.
Source: Polygon
