‘Marvel Rivals’ Star Abby Trott Talks Magik, Lady Loki, & ‘Demon Slayer’ Success (Interview)

Feature First’s Christopher Mills got a chance to sit down with actress Abby Trott to discuss her career, including roles like Lady Loki and Magik in Marvel Rivals and Nezuko from Demon Slayer. Read our

Abby Trott is an established voice actress, actress, and singer, with roles in film, television, and games, making her one of the most prominent figures in her field with an extensive resume that includes Marvel Rivals, X-Men ’97, Demon Slayer, Dan Da Dan, and many more.

This article is a condensed version of our interview; the full video is available on our YouTube page.

Christopher: Firstly, it’s hard not to be excited right now, because I’ve been such a huge fan of the character Magik for some years now, and she’s a character that’s been quite popular in the comics within her X-Men world. But outside of that, the general public didn’t know much about this character. She’s appeared in a few video games like Midnight Suns and Future Fight, but I think it’s Marvel Rivals that really has shown a growing interest to the character; So I was wondering, how does it feel for you to have your version of this well-known character be the version that a lot of people know and love?

Abby Trott: It’s pretty awesome, it’s a great honor. [To Chris] I’m curious how you became a fan of Magik? Because I do find that it’s the case often that people will come up to me and say “I’ve never heard of Magik until Marvel Rivals.” So it’s a kinda big mantle to bear because if this is your first impression of the character, obviously I want to do it justice and make sure that she is everything she is meant to be. But I think it’s great because a lot of people are now branching and reading the comics, and they want to know more about this character. So if that’s their gateway into Ilyana, then great!

C: My introduction to the character was one of the comics. I can’t remember the exact comic, but I remember seeing a comic [and she was someone who had] a big sword, they can teleport, they control demons. It was like the coolest thing to me, and I remember seeing just how powerful she was to like other Mutants and other characters, and I thought to myself, “Why does no one else talk about this character?” She’s like so powerful… [and your voice,] I love hearing when I’m playing the game and getting to see interactions with all these different characters. Talk about interactions in Marvel Rivals, there is obviously a lot between each character, and I was wondering how recording those interactions are for you considering that you’re not inside the booth with the other people as they’re doing it, so I was just wondering what that experience is like for you and if you have a favorite voice line of hers?

A: Yeah so it depends on like, for Magik, I didn’t get to hear any of the other characters and I didn’t know what they’d sound like. So it was a lot of me asking the director, asking the team from Marvel; What the circumstances are? How do I feel about this particular character? Because you know Magik has certain relationships with other characters like Storm, and it depends on who you are talking to. So I would just gather as much context as I could and do different versions so we would roll with the one they liked. But then after the game was released, I also voiced Lady Loki. Those characters already exist in the game and their voice lines are remaining the same for a lot of them, so I could play off of that and put a different spin on it, Troy [Baker] does an amazing job [as Loki] and I went into that session being like; “do you want me to copy what he did?” But they didn’t want to do that, they wanted to lay out the ground work for Lady Loki her own unique attitude. As for favorite lines… I just love it when Magik is so snarky… there’s one like: (In Magik Voice) “People are afraid of you?” Any time she’s not nice is fun for me.

C: Marvel Rivals has a lot of “firsts” in the hero shooter genre of video games, there are a lot of things done that I don’t think we have seen done in other games. And now we have the first gender bent skin. Like you said, Loki already exists in the game, has his own voice actor, and he’s gotten a whole new skin that has completely transformed the character, whole new voice lines, which I think people didn’t expect to happen. So I was wondering, how did they approach you about being the voice for a character that already exists in the game?

A: This was also an audition that I almost didn’t submit for because I was already in the game. I’m like “there’s no way they’re going to cast me as two roles,” and I think I was talking to the voice director about something else and it came up…and he was like “why didn’t you [submit an audition?], you never know.” So I did and I actually booked [the role] and I could not believe it… I really fell in love with the character. Loki is such a fun character, just really dynamic. When we got to the session one of my first questions was, “Which version of Lady Loki is this?”… So it’s Loki kinda just effing around [in the body of a woman]. The voice note that I got that I love the most was like “just flirt with all the ladies.”… So it was just really fun to record and I feel so lucky to have been able to do it and I’m so grateful to casting for letting me do that.

C: Since you voice two characters, is there any other character in Marvel Rivals that you want to voice? Whether they’re in the game already, or a Marvel character that’s yet to be in the game.

A: There’s so many wonderful characters in the Marvel universe… I can’t think of any in particular that I’m champing at the bit to voice, but there are some really cool characters like, Captain Marvel is a cool character… I think about characters they could possibly introduce to the game, Spider-Gwen is a cool character, (chuckling) but I’m already voicing two characters in the game!

C: Never say never, Spider-Gwen can be another skin for Spider-Man!

A: It’s fun too, when I think of characters [who could be introduced at some point], I automatically am thinking of who I would want to cast in those roles. Because I have a lot of friends, obviously, fellow voice actors, that I’m like “they’d be so perfect for this.”

C: You also do anime voices as well, Demon Slayer & Dan Da Dan. I just wanted to congratulate you on Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. That movie has broken so many records, it’s been nominated throughout award season, so I wanted to congratulate you on your voice for Nezuko. I had a few question surrounding Demon Slayer, because I’m always curious, especially for dubbing, how do you go into that without having maybe the original voices or the manga to dictate how you deal with your performance.

A: With dubbing we definitely, usually, have the luxury of having the Japanese voice actor first. So we’ll watch the take in Japanese and then we will come in for our English interpretation. So I am greatly inspired by Shion Wakayama who voices Momo in Dan Da Dan and Akari Kitō who voices Nezuko in Demon Slayer, they definitely influence my choices when recording because they’re laying the groundwork for these characters. And then when localizing it’s about putting a spin on it, putting your own essence into it, and making it make sense culturally in context for English speakers. So I think jokes for example are the greatest difference in Japanese and English anime, because humor doesn’t always translate directly. So we often have to finagle that to make sense in English, and that’s really fun. It’s challenging, but really fun. Definitely a whole other art.

C: I also wanted to ask regarding Demon Slayer, because obviously Infinity Castle and it’s being split into, I believe, three movies… everyone keeps spreading [the rumor] that the sequel is coming out in 2028. I don’t think that anything official has been said but I wanted to ask you… there’s no official release date or anything that’s been said out loud to your knowledge?

A: Not to my knowledge, I know there’s a lot of speculation but I don’t know of any concrete date yet. I wish I did because I really am excited about the next two films, I think they’re going to be epic.

This conversation is continued in the full interview.

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