Could Veronica Taylor ever voice Ash again?

[techadon]

Now that Ash's story has officially come to end in the Pokemon anime, is it possible that his original English voice actress, Veronica Taylor, could ever voice him again? Whether it's for a brief cameo in the new anime or anything involving the alternate timeline established by the I Choose You movie? After all, Peter Cullen returned to voice Optimus Prime in the live action Transformers movies, Joshua Seth returned to voice Tai Kamiya in Digimon Adventure Tri, is it possible that Veronica could do the same with Ash?

 

[lisianthus]

I guess it'd certainly be possible, but I'd have a hard time understanding why the dub directors would choose to do so? Especially considering how Sarah Natchonenny has now been VAing Ash for a longer time than Veronica Taylor did. The biggest possibility? I guess, of this that I could think of, would be if they were to somehow revisit the early seasons again in some way, but I guess I just don't exactly see it happening anymore? Especially because an entirely new generation of kids, myself included, now know her voice as Ash (although I did watch lots of 4Kids Pokéani on the official website?) too. I think it's possible! But is it something to expect? Maybe not?

 

[Dr. Gro 3001]

I mean it's not impossible for her to come back to voice Ash for something. However, since Ash's tenure in the anime is over, and his current voice actress is still around, it seems very unlikely. Especially since Sarah Natochenny did voice Ash in Masters EX. Taylor also has not come back to really voice anyone in the anime since the departure. The only potential chance that I could see Taylor voicing Ash again would be if there was some alternate dimension thing going on and they wanted a different voice for an Ash from another dimension.

 

[Eitarou]

Could she? Absolutely.

Will she? Probably not

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I sure hope so, somehow. Because even though Sarah Natochenny has voiced Ash for longer at this point, and they probably will just have her voice him again if/when Ash does return, I actually hope for that not to happen, because even though she's voiced him for longer, I never really did move on from Veronica Taylor's Ash. It's just the superior version of his voice to me.

 

[snowmint]

Likely no. Pokemon just doesn't want to for whatever reason.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

About the same percentage as Stephanie Nadolny voicing Goku again. Slim to none.

 

[Greninjaman]

Likely no. Pokemon just doesn't want to for whatever reason.

Could be more that Veronica does not want to than Pokemon not wanting to. She might not be interested anymore.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Could be more that Veronica does not want to than Pokemon not wanting to. She might not be interested anymore.

I have my doubts about that considering that Ash is still one of, if not her favorite role. She also expressed how she wished that she could have been involved with Horizons, implying that she would still like to be a part of the anime itself even if she couldn't voice Ash. She has to move onto different roles to continue her career, but I don't think she's uninterested in coming back to the anime either.

As for the question itself, I suppose it's plausible and I do like Veronica Taylor's voice for Ash, but Sarah Natchonenny has been voicing him much longer at this point and plenty of kids have grown up being more familiar with her voices for Ash instead of Veronica Taylor. Unless Sarah retires from voice acting altogether and for some reason wouldn't want to come back to voice Ash when he inevitably makes some kind of appearance down the road, I'm not sure if TPCI would be interested in bringing Veronica Taylor back to voice Ash.

 

[sc190191]

I agree with @Hidden Mew entirely, and also wanted to add that Rachel Lillis (Misty's original VA) worked after the 4Kids split (as Maylene) and still was unable to reprise her role as Misty during BW(cameo)/SM, even though Michele Knotz only prior work as Misty was in the somewhat obscure Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon. So if TPCI didn't bring back someone who actually worked on their version of the anime for an iconic role that was hardly voiced at all by the new VA (only in a tiny special very few even saw) then I think the odds of replacing Sarah and her 17+ years as Ash for Veronica who didn't even work under TPCI at all is astronomically low, with Sarah not wanting to do it being the only chance, and even then I would worry they might recast altogether (especially with the possibility of Ash aging).

 

[RetroPokeFan]

If Ash made an appearance in Horizons it'd still be Sarah Natochenny voicing her with her still part of the show.

The easy safe answer though is that I don't think Ash will show up at all (or anyone else from that era for that matter) and to go even further I think that's it for the Ash that we all know.

I don't think I'd be interested in this especially with how Horizons is doing as of now but if they did plan on bringing him back I would not be surprised if it was via a full on reboot so that they could start things entirely from scratch and wouldn't have to bring up years worth of continuity.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I agree with @Hidden Mew entirely, and also wanted to add that Rachel Lillis (Misty's original VA) worked after the 4Kids split (as Maylene) and still was unable to reprise her role as Misty during BW(cameo)/SM, even though Michele Knotz only prior work as Misty was in the somewhat obscure Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon. So if TPCI didn't bring back someone who actually worked on their version of the anime for an iconic role that was hardly voiced at all by the new VA (only in a tiny special very few even saw) then I think the odds of replacing Sarah and her 17+ years as Ash for Veronica who didn't even work under TPCI at all is astronomically low, with Sarah not wanting to do it being the only chance, and even then I would worry they might recast altogether (especially with the possibility of Ash aging).

Oh no, I do agree with you, the chances are astronomically low. I'm not even expecting it to happen like, at all. It would just be wonderful if it did, since Veronica voicing Ash again someday, somehow, is something I've hoped would happen again for the last 17 years.

 

[snowmint]

Ash will be back in something... He's "iconic" now.

 

[Alola]

Now that Ash's story has officially come to end in the Pokemon anime, is it possible that his original English voice actress, Veronica Taylor, could ever voice him again? Whether it's for a brief cameo in the new anime or anything involving the alternate timeline established by the I Choose You movie? After all, Peter Cullen returned to voice Optimus Prime in the live action Transformers movies, Joshua Seth returned to voice Tai Kamiya in Digimon Adventure Tri, is it possible that Veronica could do the same with Ash?

I think this Digimon example is interesting, given the fact that Seth wasn't asked to do Tai for the 2020 reboot (which is huge, being over 60 episodes long iirc)...yet he is voicing Tai again over the first three Digimon movies that they're rerecording (in addition to his work as Tai in tri & Kizuna). But I doubt TCPi would follow in that example.

As much as I love Taylor's Ash, which is what I grew up with as well, I just don't see it happening sadly. TCPi has gone to great lengths in the past year to establish that Natochenny is, and has been for a while, the English voice of Ash. Where there were no interviews or social media bites before, there are plenty now with her marketing the role. I just don't see all of that being cast aside for Taylor to inexplicably come back to voice Ash again; should he somehow appear in Horizons, it's most likely going to be Natochenny voicing him. We've even had a couple alternate timeline movies where they could have changed that up, but didn't. Heck, they even could have brought her back as a cameo in Journeys for the Alternate Dimension Ash as a fun treat. and didn't do that either.

It's a complex situation, given that the original actors didn't want to stop voice acting the characters. I really miss Taylor and Lillis and it does make me a bit sad knowing I likely won't hear the OG Ash, Misty, May, Jessie, etc. ever again.

 

[snowmint]

Have you watched the 4kids dinosaur king dub? It has the actors playing rip off versions of their pokemon characters.

 

[Poke Trey]

Have you watched the 4kids dinosaur king dub? It has the actors playing rip off versions of their pokemon characters.

And I bet 4kids wanted that to be their next cash cow, but we know how that turned out.

 

[SushiBurrito]

I think this Digimon example is interesting, given the fact that Seth wasn't asked to do Tai for the 2020 reboot (which is huge, being over 60 episodes long iirc)...yet he is voicing Tai again over the first three Digimon movies that they're rerecording (in addition to his work as Tai in tri & Kizuna). But I doubt TCPi would follow in that example.
.

The Japanese version of Digimon 2020 had a complete recast so the English dub was following suit.

Tri and Kizuna are meant to present continuity with the old timeline and the 3 movies redubs are basically fixing Saban and Fox Kids mistake so it makes sense to get as much of the old cast as possible.


I wish TPCi had gotten the old cast back for Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution since it was obviously going to attract way more of a an old Pokemon audience than, say, Secrets of the Jungle and it would be nice for Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, and Rachel Lillis to voice a proper dub of the Mewtwo movie. Just like the Funimation cast was given a chance to do Dragon Ball Z correctly with Kai.

 

[Alola]

The Japanese version of Digimon 2020 had a complete recast so the English dub was following suit.

It did not. Only the human partners got recast, while the Digimon partners kept their original VAs. Despite this though, several of the Digimon partners got their English VAs recast (a diversion from the original process), so I find it a moot point to argue the dub following the sub as a reason.

 

[Hidden Mew]

There have been other cases where a new anime adaptation or reboot keeps at least some of the original dub casts while the Japanese versions went for a clean slate. The Fruits Basket reboot had a completely new cast in the Japanese version, but they kept a large portion of the 2001 dub cast. Trigun Stampede also kept Johnny Yong Bosch around to voice Vash when he had a new Japanese voice actor too. So if they really wanted to, they could have easily justified keeping Seth as Tai's voice even in the Adventure reboot. If we got a Pokemon reboot down the road with Ash as the lead and he for some reason has a different voice, TPCI would most likely still keep Sarah as his dub voice actress.

 

[snowmint]

Or get someone to emulate Sarah's voice and not veronicas...