Splinter Cell: Deathwatch Creator Backs New Sam Fisher After Michael Ironside, Urges Fans to Give Him a Chance

Splinter Cell is coming back as an animated Netflix series, and yes, they recast Sam Fisher. If you grew up with Michael Ironside growling in your ear, I get why that makes you tense. Creator Derek Kolstad gets it too, and he is very publicly asking fans to breathe.

Yes, Michael Ironside is not back

Ironside voiced Sam in five mainline Splinter Cell games, which is basically lifetime tenure in video game terms. Kolstad says he loves the guy — he literally hugged him on the set of his movie Nobody — but the show is going with Liev Schreiber (yep, Ray Donovan himself) as the new voice of Sam.

Why Liev Schreiber, according to Kolstad

• He brings a calm edge: that mix of gentleness and steel Kolstad wanted for an older Sam.
• He has range across stage, TV, and film, and Kolstad says there is a built-in goodwill and gravitas to his voice.
• He communicates in the quiet beats — the whole 'saying stuff without saying stuff' thing — which matters when a character like Sam does half his talking with silence.
• Those wordless moments at the start and end of a scene (what Kolstad calls the bookends) are where Schreiber shines.
• He did not just imitate Ironside; he made the character his own and even converted Kolstad in the process.

'What I would say to the hardcore fans, man, is give him a chance, because he made me a believer.'

If you are wondering why Kolstad sounds so certain, this is the guy who built John Wick and then spun the same one-man-against-the-world DNA into the Bob Odenkirk-led Nobody. He knows his stoic assassins.

So what is Deathwatch actually about?

The show centers on an older Sam Fisher. He is pulled out of retirement and shoved back into the field after a mission goes sideways. Classic Fisher setup, just with more years and scars on him. Splinter Cell: Deathwatch hits Netflix on October 14.