FFVII Rebirth Vincent Valentine will be voiced by Matthew Mercer

Square Enix announced at this weekend's New York Comic Con event that voice actor Matthew Mercer will play Vincent Valentine in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The reveal came during the company's NYCC 2023 panel held on October 14, 2023.

The panel itself included as guests multiple members of the FFVII Rebirth English-language voice cast, including Cody Christian (Cloud Strife), Britt Baron (Tifa Lockhart), John Eric (Barret Wallace), Suzie Yeung (Yuffie Kisaragi) and Max Mittelman (Red XIII). In earlier announcements, Mercer was credited only as the host of the panel, but was officially confirmed as Vincent's voice during the panel itself. The decision to cast Mercer as Vincent is a shift from earlier voiced versions of the character. In the 2006 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children film and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Vincent was voiced in English by voice actor Steve Blum. Blum confirmed in late 2022 that he would not be returning to play Vincent in Rebirth.

Besides Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Matthew Mercer has a history with the Final Fantasy series. He played Crownsguard member Cor Leonis in Final Fantasy XV, Class Zero member Trey in Final Fantasy Type-0, and Cid in Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. Though Vincent Valentine is Mercer's first named role in the FFVII Remake series, he did contribute Additional Voices to FFVII Remake. Additional Voices roles are the voice acting equivalent of background actors, where voice actors contribute things like crowd noises, combat grunts, and occasional single lines from unnamed characters. Mercer also voices other notable RPG and anime characters, including Persona 5's Yusuke Kitagawa, Baldur's Gate III's Minsc, and Attack on Titan's Levi.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth launches on the PS5 on February 29, 2024, and will remain exclusive to that platform for at least 6 months. Final Fantasy VII Remake is available on PS4, PS5, and PC.