This latest theory comes from Reddit user RobertdBanks, who posted to the Destiny 2 subreddit about what could be causing some of the highest profile characters to start dying off from the series. The theory itself makes sense to a degree, though there is some evidence brought up by commenters that could poke a few holes in this backdoor reasoning for killing off characters.

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According to RobertdBanks, the theory is that some characters were killed off as a result of the voice actors either not being available for Destiny 2’s yearly expansions or no longer wanting to continue any extended contracts. This is most prominently seen with the death of Cayde-6 that the Forsaken expansion centered around, with actor Nathan Fillion notably not even being available to perform the final lines for the iconic character. The conclusion that the original post and replying comments appear to have come to is that while the contracts aren’t the only reason to kill some fan favorite characters, not having consistent access to high profile actors could lean Bungie in that direction.

Several comments have poked a few holes in the theory, however, with the player’s Ghost acting as a prime example as a contradiction to this theory. Specifically, some comments pointed out the original casting of Peter Dinklage as Destiny’s Ghost simply being recast to Nolan North when the original actor was either no longer available or interested in continuing to be the character. Given how important this character was, not only to the story but also a major gameplay mechanic, Ghost couldn’t exactly be killed off in the same way, which smooths over this theoretical hole to a degree.

One aspect of deals and contracts being signed behind closed doors does mean that fans will likely never know why some major decisions were really made completely from Bungie’s perspective. For now, all fans can really do is theorize about what might be the true cause of these characters being completely scrubbed from the narrative moving forward. It could be that many of these deaths were long planned for the ever-expanding Destiny 2 lore, or the writers could be writing by the seat of their pants while they need to work around renewed or cancled contracts as they continue forward.

Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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