Stephen Ford's involvement in Starfield may hint at voiced protagonist, or more

The introduction of Vasco marks Starfield's first featurette on an NPC. Thus far, the promo material for Bethesda's upcoming sci-fi RPG has been about its design philosophy and the world of Starfield itself.

Vasco's introduction also lays down the context for other character reveals, and a recent tweet by actor-director Stephen Ford feeds this notion.

The fandom is already aflutter with anticipation and rumors related to what Stephen Ford hints at. The most obvious idea is that he will be voicing an in-game character. However, evidence from extant media may corroborate the possibility of him playing a central character or even a voiced protagonist.

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Stephen Ford happens to resemble one of the characters in the official Starfield poster

No human character from Starfield has been directly profiled in detail by Bethesda thus far. The four characters teased in the poster is everything Starfield enthusiasts have to go by.

On the other hand, this scarcity of characters makes the fan theories click. Coincidentally or otherwise, the supposed stand-in for the player character in the official teaser trailer that revealed the release date vaguely resembles Stephen Wolf.

The identity of characters has been yet left a mystery by Bethesda (image via Bethesda Softworks)

This, according to some among the fandom, maybe the default appearance for the player character. Albeit a hotly debated community topic, Bethesda made their bold entry into a voiced protagonist with Fallout 4 (2015).

Furthermore, given that the upcoming game will be Bethesda's first foray into motion-captured dialog and advanced facial animation like L.A. Noire, Stephen Ford might even be the mocap actor-cum-voice for the default player avatar.

The chief fuel for this theory is the actor's resemblance to both the poster character and a similar concept art glimpsed in the first Starfield dev diary upload. Character customization is a staple feature of BGS games, making the motion-captured player avatar theory less likely unless we have a Commander Shepard scenario.

A more plausible explanation of Stephen's tweet is him voicing a follower. "So I can follow you" may apply here in more than a purely literal sense. As Todd Howard has mentioned in the second dev diary, 'Made for Wanderers', more complex and thoroughly written companion characters are among Starfield's design checkboxes.

Previously, Bethesda games have had Hollywood celebrities voice major characters. Matthew Perry, i.e., Chandler from F.R.I.E.N.D.S., was the voice of Benny in Fallout: New Vegas.

However, a third possibility is related to Stephen Ford's recent career trend. Outside of "Kamen Rider" and "Teen Wolf", a good chunk of his work is behind the camera - including his time as a Machinima producer and host.

His YouTube channel, Ascenders, centers around live-action spoofs and retellings of video-game-related content. Putting the two together may hint at Stephen's involvement in live-action content, which includes the possibility of mini-series tie-ins to aid worldbuilding.