Dee Bradley Baker is coming back to voice Olmec for The CW's Legends Of The Hidden Temple
The CW's reboot of the Nickelodeon classic is aimed at adult contestants this time
Dee Bradley Baker is one of those actors who almost every person who’s been in proximity to American TV at some point in the last 40 years has heard, if not heard of; as one of the planet’s most prolific working voice actors, with 600-plus credits to his name, Baker’s resumé is one of the longest in the business. That includes everything from a starring role on American Dad—where he voices put-upon goldfish Klaus—to Steven Universe, to, basically, seriously, everything. (Baker has an especially strong sideline in animal noises/voices; that’s him providing the croaks for the adorable Frog Lady in the second season of The Mandalorian.) Among his many, many roles, Baker has one that he’s now set to reprise, some 20 years later: Big stone head Olmec from Nickelodeon’s Legends Of The Hidden Temple.
This is per Deadline, which notes that producers on the CW’s adult-focused reboot of the nostalgia-heavy kids games show have tapped Baker to once again play the role of the show’s announcer/obelisk, teaming up with new host Cristela Alonzo to test contestants on the Steps Of Knowledge, etc. This is actually the second time Baker has reprised the role in recent years; he also voiced Olmec in the fictionalized TV movie based on the series in 2016, although Michael Benyaer played the character’s human incarnation in the movie.
The Legends reboot has been in the works for a few years now, having previously been developed at Quibi as the one project that might hypothetically have made us watch more Quibi. The show itself is as clear a nostalgia grab as could ever possibly exist, meanwhile, having come to fruition, presumably, entirely so that an entire generation of former kids could work out their frustrations at watching the goddamn Blue Barracudas fuck up The Shrine Of The Silver Monkey for the 50th straight time.
Legends Of The Hidden Temple is set to debut on The CW in October.