Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-64.33.250.214-20141128104812

Main characters getting double-casted as never been for anything other than clones/sons in the case of Huey and Big Boss, as far as I can recall. Or bosses having the same voice actors but that was never Snake himself being recycled.

Even specifically in the case of Medic, I hardly think they had Kiefer voice him because they were running out of time, or had too few voice actors or whatever. Matthew Mercer and Crispin Freeman voiced guards and could have been used easily, or even Robin Atkin Downes (Kaz) could have just put on another voice to voice Medic if they insisted on recycling VAs. A VA is a clue, and in this case a clue of a connection, in conjunction with what else we know about Ishmael and Medic (such as obscured faces and whatnot). I did some looking around to see if any VAs for main characters were double cast or recast for other major characters. Richard Doyle who voiced Big Boss originally voiced The Fury. Banjō Ginga who has voiced Liquid Snake in 3 games, also voiced Major Zero for 2 games. He has an as yet uncredited role on Wikipedia for MGSV. Robin Atkin Downes, as you mentioned, has previously voiced soldiers and a character named Jonathan (Portable Ops). Troy E. Baker has also voiced soldiers besides Ocelot. Lastly, Hideyuki Tanaka, the Japanese voice of Otacon and Huey, voiced another character named Jonathan (MGS4) in the same game he voiced Otacon.

You are correct that Akio and Hayter do not seem to have ever been cast as any character but the Snakes. Which makes it unlikely that will change for Akio and Sutherland in MGSV... but not improbable. The examples above prove that VAs have voiced major characters, as well as minor ones. Some within the same game. In what scenario would Akio and Sutherland ever be cast in a minor role?

One possibility is that Ishmael is like the Jonathan characters. It's been mentioned before that Ishmael is a name derived from the Bible. The same is true for the name Jonathan. The two Jonathans in previous MGS games are the only immediate examples of non-major characters being given Bible names. The others being the clones, Major Zero, Eva, and Ocelot. I lean towards this reason for casting being unlikely, but nonetheless possible.

The other possibility is that Ishmael is a tutorial character, and that Akio and Sutherland were chosen in early development to voice them as a placehold, but they stuck with them for the role. Or Akio and Sutherland may be such good motion capture actors, and they double cast them to play Ishmael, who serves as a tutorial of sorts. I find this much less possible, but again, not beyond the realm of possibilities.

I do agree with you that it's doubtful they would recast the leading actors for a non-essential role. Then again, Jonathan from Portable Ops was a rare case of a minor role, that turned out to be significant to the story. As it says in his Wikia entry, he helped influence Big Boss's philosophy. It's worth noting that, just like Ishmael, he was a character who had his face covered.

Despite all that I've said, I lean towards Ishmael having a substantial role. I highly doubt that Medic and Ishmael are related. Mainly because their voices don't match. Theorists who have connected the two have had to change the pitch in order to even prove Keifer was playing the part Medic. There is one way for them to be related, and that's if Medic and Ishmael are Decoy Octopus. If Medic were Solidus, Big Boss would have noticed. Medic was only obscured from our (player's) point of vision, but not Boss's.