The recast follows various controversies centreing around Corina Boettger and Kayli Mills.
Any Genshin Impact fan following the game's English cast online knows that the voice actors for Paimon, Corina Boettger, and Keqing, Kayli Mills, have been in hot water the past few months. Boettger and Mills figured as controversial personalities during the whole Genshin Impact work refusal controversy, and were two of the most vocal cast members speaking out against the recasting of Kinich back in March.
The recast came as no surprise to Genshin Impact fans
The announcement for Boettger and Mills’s recast came with the official Version 5.7 patch notes. The patch notes read:
After Version 5.7 is updated, Keqing and Paimon's English VAs will be updated (this change only applies to new content in Version 5.7, historical content will be gradually updated in subsequent versions).
Although the identities of Paimon and Keqing’s voice actors are yet to be revealed (likely to shield them from any backlash propagated by supporters of both Mills and Boettger), the recast is by no means a surprise to the Genshin Impact community, even if no official reason had been given.
While Boettger still actively voiced Paimon until Version 5.6, their interactions with the community since then have been strained and, at times, hostile. Boettger actively lobbied for Genshin Impact to be unionised under SAG-AFTRA for increased member benefits and AI protections. Mills on the other hand, eventually apologised for participating in the dogpiling of Kinich’s replacement voice actor, Jacob Takanashi, but continued to support the collective work refusal against HoYoverse games.
Boettger and Mills’ actions during this period of time were met with intense dissatisfaction from the community, to put it simply. Many members of Genshin Impact’s fanbase came forward to call for recasts, citing disappointment with their behaviour during this difficult time, especially after it seemed that Boettger was openly blasting Venti’s voice actor, Erika Harlacher-Stone, for coming forward with allegations of threats being given by SAG-AFTRA on their BlueSky account, among many other unsavoury statements.
A few weeks before the official recast announcement was made, Boettger had divulged in a YouTube interview that they had stepped away from voicing Paimon in Genshin Impact, only to return if a SAG interim agreement was signed.
Boettger and Mills have yet to release statements addressing the matter.
UPDATE 19 June, 2025: Mills has released a statement regarding her recast as Keqing.
