Chris Metzen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Chris Metzen
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Metzen at the 2009 BlizzCon
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| Born |
Christopher Vincent Metzen
November 22, 1973 |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1993–2016 2022–present |
| Employer | Warchief Gaming Blizzard Entertainment |
| Title | Executive Creative Director |
| Spouse(s) |
Kat Hunter
(m. 2013) |
| Children | 3 |
Christopher Vincent Metzen (born November 22, 1973) is an American game designer, artist, and voice actor. He is famous for helping create the amazing worlds and stories for many popular video games. These include Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft. All these games were made by a company called Blizzard Entertainment.
Chris Metzen started at Blizzard as an animator and artist. His first job was on a video game called Justice League Task Force. Later, he became the Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development. This meant he helped shape the overall stories for Blizzard's games. He also lent his voice to many characters, like the famous orc, Thrall. Chris retired in 2016 to spend more time with his family. But he came back to Blizzard in 2022 as a creative advisor. In 2023, he became the executive creative director for the Warcraft universe.
Contents
Chris Metzen's Journey in Gaming
Chris Metzen began his career after a friend saw his art and told him to apply to Blizzard Entertainment. At the time, Blizzard was known as Chaos Studios. Chris was hired quickly, even though he thought it was a graphic design studio, not a video game company!
Early Work and Warcraft Beginnings
Chris's first project was the game Justice League Task Force. He created artwork and character animations for it. Around the same time, in 1994, he also worked on Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. For this game, he helped with the art, illustrations, and the game's instruction manual. Chris often contributed to manual design and concept art for many Blizzard games.
His role grew a lot with Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1995. This game gave him the chance to help build the fantasy world of Warcraft. He also designed many of the game's missions.
Creating Diablo and StarCraft Worlds
In 1996, Blizzard launched its second big game series, Diablo. Chris Metzen, along with David Brevik and Bill Roper, helped create the dark fantasy world of Diablo. Chris also did some voice acting for characters in the game.
He continued to do voice work for many games. In 1998, he became the lead designer for the science fiction strategy game StarCraft. With James Phinney, Chris wrote the game's detailed story and script. He also helped choose the voice actors. In 1999, he wrote a short story called Revelations set in the StarCraft universe.
Chris returned to the Diablo series for Diablo II in 2000. He worked on the story, script, and artwork. In 2001, he wrote a novel set in the Warcraft world called Of Blood and Honor.
Leading Creative Vision
For Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos in 2002, Chris Metzen was the creative director. This meant he guided the overall creative vision for the game. He also came up with the story idea and wrote the script. He continued this role for all of Blizzard's later video games.
His work on the huge online game World of Warcraft (released in 2004) was also important. He helped with script writing, artwork, and voice acting.
Other Creative Projects
In 2005, Chris announced he was working on a graphic novel series called Soldier: 76. This story was set during a second American civil war. Later, a character named Soldier: 76 appeared in Blizzard's online shooter game, Overwatch, released in 2016.
Chris also teamed up with author Flint Dille and artist Livio Ramondelli. Together, they created a 12-part digital comic series called Transformers: Autocracy in 2012. This series explored the time just before the Great War in the Transformers universe. It was followed by Transformers: Monstrosity in 2013 and Transformers: Primacy in 2014.
Retirement and Return to Blizzard
Chris Metzen even had a small role in the 2016 Warcraft movie. He played a perfume seller in the city of Stormwind.
On September 12, 2016, Chris announced he was retiring from Blizzard Entertainment. He had worked there for almost 23 years. However, he returned to voice Thrall in the "Safe Haven" cinematic in 2019. He also voiced Thrall in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.
In December 2022, Blizzard announced Chris Metzen's return to the company. He came back as a creative advisor for the Warcraft games. In September 2023, he took on the role of Executive Creative Director for the entire Warcraft universe.
Chris Metzen's Inspirations
Chris Metzen started making comics when he was twelve years old. But he loved drawing from an even younger age, around six. He was a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons. He says that the Dragonlance novels and Star Wars were his main inspirations for his fantasy and science fiction creations. He also looks up to fantasy and comic book artists like Walt Simonson and Keith Parkinson.
He describes his art style as being influenced by Walt Simonson and Jim Lee for how he draws shapes. But he prefers the costumes, themes, and overall feeling from the fantasy paintings of Larry Elmore and Keith Parkinson.
Voice Over Roles
Chris Metzen has voiced many characters in video games and even some TV shows.
Video Games
- Diablo – Leoric
- StarCraft – Marine, Battlecruiser, Ghost
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos – Thrall
- Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne – Thrall, Vol'jin
- World of Warcraft – Thrall, Vol'jin, Orcs, Archaedas, Ragnaros, Nefarian, Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, Bloodlord Mandokir, Hakkar the Soulflayer, Jin'do the Hexxer
- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade – Thrall, Zul'jin
- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King – Thrall, Vol'jin, Varian Wrynn, Dranosh Saurfang
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Marine, Battlecruiser, Tauren Marine
- World of Warcraft: Cataclysm – Thrall, Vol'jin, Varian Wrynn, Ragnaros, Nefarian, Bloodlord Mandokir, Jin'do the Godbreaker, Hakkar the Soulflayer
- World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria – Thrall, Arcanital Mara'kah, Captain Halu'kal, Nalak the Storm Lord, War-God Jalak
- Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm – Marine, Battlecruiser
- Hearthstone – Thrall, Various minions
- World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor – Thrall, Varian Wrynn, Supreme Lord Kazzak
- Heroes of the Storm – Thrall, Varian Wrynn, Imperius
- StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void – Marine, Battlecruiser
- World of Warcraft: Legion – Thrall, Varian Wrynn, Beliash, Duke Hydraxis
- Overwatch – Bastion
- World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth – Thrall
- World of Warcraft: Shadowlands – Thrall, Hakkar the Soulflayer, Varian Wrynn
- Warcraft III: Reforged – Thrall, Vol'jin
- Overwatch 2 – Bastion
- World of Warcraft: Dragonflight – Thrall, Archaedas
- World of Warcraft: The War Within – Thrall, Archaedas
Television
- The Dragon Prince – Avizandum / Thunder
- Mech Strike Monster Hunters: The Eye of Doom – Doctor Doom
See also
In Spanish: Chris Metzen para niños
