Paimon VA says she’ll quit voicing Genshin Impact mascot

As the main protagonist’s most loyal companion, Paimon is one of the most recognizable faces and voices of Genshin Impact — but how she sounds may be set to change in future versions of the open-world RPG. Corina Boettger, who’s been voicing Paimon in the English dub since launch, has announced that she’ll no longer play the role until HoYoverse signs an agreement with the screen actors’ guild and, ultimately, makes its games union projects. 

That’s something HoYoverse has shown no interest in doing so far for a variety of reasons and is unlikely to change, making a recast of Paimon the most likely it’s ever been.

Boettger claimed that seeing a fellow voice actor being replaced in his role on the project as well as HoYoverse’s refusal to sign an agreement with SAG-AFTRA “was the final straw” for her. In addition, she said that her payments for the role were once again inconsistent, though she did not provide any proof to that effect.

HoYoverse previously moved Boettger to a different recording studio after it turned out that she had indeed not been paid by Formosa, the developer’s recording partner at the time. Boettger has since recorded her Genshin Impact lines at SIDE Los Angeles. Once again, it’s important to note that VAs are contracted by a recording studio, which in turn is contracted by the developer, so payment disputes are usually between the actor and the recording company, even though Boettger makes it seem like HoYoverse is refusing to pay her on time.

Fans have pointed out some general inconsistencies in Boettger’s narrative. She claimed to “live paycheck to paycheck” and stated that her payments were delayed by three to five months instead of getting to her inside of 30 days after recording, as her contract stipulates. Given that receiving her pay is of such urgency and she’s had success in resolving a similar matter in the past by going public with it, it’s difficult to understand why she remained quiet about it this time. 

Boettger also claimed that she told HoYoverse that she’ll quit as Paimon following the replacement of John Patneaude as Kinich earlier this year, but at that time she publicly argued that she couldn’t quit the gig out of financial reasons — which in itself is understandable. But if she actually quit back then, why lie about it?

With these holes in the story, many people now believe that it was in fact the other way around: Boettger got the boot and is trying to reframe the public narrative. Naturally, that’s as much speculation at this point as Boettger’s claims are unsubstantiated.

Boettger has been a vocal supporter of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, but continued to voice Paimon even while others withheld their work out of solidarity. Her overly aggressive comments towards VAs who were brought in to replace striking talents (and her apparent hypocrisy in the matter) are among the reasons why many followers of HoYoverse games, who were supportive of the strike initially, have recently turned against it in great numbers — including fellow voice actors, who decried such toxicity and called for an end of the strike.

Although Paimon’s voice is such a prominent one in the game, Genshin Impact fans online are almost elated to see Boettger go, happy to be rid of a person they see as a drama generator — that’s on top of the fact that many players have found Paimon’s English voice to be annoying for a long time now.

As HoYoverse generally tends to avoid commenting on matters related to voice actors, we’re unlikely to see any confirmation of a Paimon recast until we get the patch notes of the Genshin Impact version in which it happens — or hear a different voice for Paimon in a trailer, which is what recently happened with the Trailblazer recast in Honkai: Star Rail. Since it’s unclear when – or, indeed, if – Boettger stopped recording lines for Paimon, it’s impossible to say when a voice change might be implemented.

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