Mass Effect 3 ending unexpected, says voice of male Shepard

Update: Added additional comment from Meer regarding DLC recording sessions.

The ending of Mass Effect 3 surprised many people, including the actor who played the male voice of Commander Shepard, Canadian actor Mark Meer. He has been working with BioWare since the inception of the Mass Effect franchise, giving vocal life to the many choices Shepard has faced throughout the trilogy. But even Meer didn't expect Mass Effect 3's controversial ending.

"As an actor, it's pretty much my job to help bring the vision of the writers to life," he said in an interview with Shacknews. "It wasn't necessarily what I expected, but then again, I didn't know what to expect."

Mark Meer

"It wasn't really my job to figure out where the story should go," he told us. "I didn't personally object to the ending, but Bioware's certainly aware of those who did, and the purpose of the upcoming Extended Cut DLC is to address some of the fans' concerns and desires for clarification."

Meer is reprising his role for the upcoming expansion, but due to an NDA, he can't reveal anything about the expanded ending. "If I break my N.D.A. to talk about E.C. D.L.C., I might be arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D.," he joked. He did add: "Actually, I have had a couple of DLC recording sessions thus far - one was done while I was in England for the most recent London Improvathon. Luckily, I did my recording BEFORE I stayed awake performing for 50 straight hours... Shepard might have sounded more like a Vorcha."

Although Meer has been with the franchise every step of the way, he has yet to play Mass Effect 3 and experience its original ending from a player's perspective. "I'm still waiting for a chance to sit down with the third game," he told us, after telling us he's played both ME1 and 2 on Paragon and Renegade playthroughs. "I tend to like at least an 8- to 12-hour window of free time for playing RPGs, and those have NOT been common lately. Soon, I hope."