Cody Christian On Returning As Cloud In FF7 Rebirth: "I Don't Feel Like A Fraud Anymore"

The following article contains spoilers for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

finally arrived at the end of last month, taking the protagonists beyond Midgar to continue the journey started in. The second entry in the planned trilogy, allows for an extended retelling of the original 1997 game. Actor Cody Christian, known for roles in shows like and, made his voice acting debut as protagonist Cloud Strife in the title, bringing new life to the character.

One of the main goals of the trilogy project is to reimagine and expand upon the world fans know, and a key component of that lies with Cloud, and in turn, Christian's performance. Famously a stoic character known for repressing his emotions, the past two games have given Strife room to grow. Much of 's story has changed from the original, opening up new opportunities for the protagonist to interact with other characters and experience more overall development — no small undertaking for any performer, but particularly for a first-time voice actor.

interviewed Cody Christian to talk about his history with gaming, jumping into the world of voice acting, and the biggest recording memories.

Screen Rant: First, I'm curious about your own personal history with video games. Have you been into them for a while? Have you been into for a while?

Cody Christian: I'm not going to lie and say I've been a massive fan of this genre. Of video games, yes, but not Final Fantasy, not really RPGs, not JRPGs. I didn't really grow up playing them, my older brother did. My older brother is very heavily into not only that genre, but just a lot of Japanese culture, a lot of manga, a lot of anime. My brother actually was in a foreign exchange because he was learning Japanese in high school.

He actually went out to Japan for a student trip for two weeks. But, long story short, I'm a big fan of video games. When I say that, I mean, I really grew up playing because my circumstances were a bit different. I was homeschooled from a very young age because