Fable 3's cast was so stacked it changed AAA games

Cleese? Fassbender? Sir Ben Kingsley?!

These days, it’s not rare to see A-list actors appear in major video games. Giancarlo Esposito in Far Cry 6. Keanu Reeves in Cyberpunk 2077. J.K. Simmons in Baldur’s Gate 3. Half of Hollywood in Death Stranding 2. While such casting announcements are par for the course in 2025, the trend itself kicked off in earnest 15 years ago, with the release of Lionhead Studios’ Fable 3.

Released Oct. 29, 2010, for the Xbox 360, Fable 3 leaves a complicated legacy. Fable was an Xbox flagship for years, a series of fantasy action RPGs beloved for its tongue-in-cheek tone and impactful branching narrative paths. The third game was infamously produced on a tight timeline, though, and debuted to mixed reception. Following its release, Microsoft, stewards of Lionhead at the time, pivoted the studio toward developing a series of ill-fated Kinect games. (Remember the Kinect?) Microsoft closed Lionhead in 2016, so for all intents and purposes, Fable 3 is Lionhead’s swansong.

Fable 3 picks up 50 years after its predecessor. Its setting, Albion, a fairy-tale version of the U.K., has entered the industrial age. You’re cast as young royalty — a prince or princess, depending on who you choose to play as at the start — and eventually find yourself ruling over Albion. That’s when Fable 3 hits you with its unexpected second half: Freshly anointed, you find yourself having to manage a kingdom, making choices that’ll help one ally at the expense of another. This means you spend a lot of your time in Fable 3 just… talking to people. But all throughout, Fable 3 is buoyed by a marquee of megawatt names who truly brought their A game, giving the game a cinematic feel from start to finish.

One of the first voices you hear in Fable 3 is Monty Python’s John Cleese, who plays Jasper, the butler to your main character. Jasper sticks with you the entire game. At the start of the game, you’re kicked out of your castle home and forced into exile by King Logan, who also happens to be your character’s antagonistic older brother. Logan, by the way, is played by Michael Fassbender (Black Bag, X-Men: Apocalypse), bringing deliciously hammy venom to a key role. On your way out of the castle, you team up with Walter Beck, voiced by Bernard Hill, best-known for playing King Théoden in Peter Jackson’s trilogy of Lord of the Rings films. The very same fatherly pathos that makes Théoden such an unforgettable presence shines through in Walter as well.

Those are just the key players. Throughout the game, in your quest to get back at Logan, you gather a merry band of misfits. A revolutionary named Page is played by Naomie Harris, known for films like No Time to Die and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh plays the ruler of a city-state sympathetic to your cause. Superman’s Nicholas Hoult plays a romantic interest, if you choose to play as the princess. One soldier, Ben Finn, is played by Mission: Impossible’s Simon Pegg. Sabine, the ruler of a nearby realm, is played by Sir Ben Kingsley, who you may recognize for roles such as, oh, being Sir Ben Fucking Kingsley.

Of course, Fable 3 was not literally the first time big-name actors have appeared in a video game. Rockstar Games has long been able to command top talent for its Grand Theft Auto series, with the likes of Ray Liotta and Samuel L. Jackson appearing in key roles. Kirsten Bell, Nathan Fillion, Keith David, and Seth Green all had roles in Halo, Mass Effect, and Assassin’s Creed, to name just a few. Games based on or inspired by popular entertainment franchises, from James Bond to the various Disney properties appearing in Kingdom Hearts, have similarly seen crossover, with actors like Pierce Brosnan and Christopher Lee reprising notable screen roles. (Not always, though. Tom Cruise declined to provide his voice or likeness for the 2003 Mission: Impossible game Mission: Impossible — Operation Surma, which stars his character from the films, Ethan Hunt, and is legitimately considered canon.) Ron Perlman narrates Fallout.

But Fable 3 was the watershed moment. It didn’t just have one or two big names; it had an entire cast. (See above.) You’d need a Wes Anderson poster to fit the whole billing block. Nowadays, stacked casts in major video games don’t often warrant a second thought, even in indies — whether that’s Daisy Ridley, James McAvoy, and Willem Dafoe in the time-loop puzzler 12 Minutes, or Aaron Paul and Jeffrey Wright anchoring the forthcoming superhero sitcom Dispatch. But when Fable 3 came out in 2010, you didn’t see it so regularly. And certainly not to that degree.

And the Fable series itself appears to be carrying the torch. The next entry, a reboot of sorts simply called Fable, is currently planned for 2026, following a February 2025 delay. While publisher Xbox Game Studios has kept much about the game under wraps, footage shown so far has hinted it will include at least some level of A-list talent. Its 2023 trailer starred BAFTA-winning Richard Ayoade.