Is it really that much of a reach that Mercer was chosen in large portion because he's already outrageously popular with a certain portion of the fanbase though?
Eh. Matt voiced not one, but two characters in PoE1 and Deadfire, and entire CritRole cast was hired to do major voice work for the sequels, and game still initially flopped. I really wouldn’t look for any conspiracy theories, he constantly gets to work for a reason - he is a superbly versatile actor, and I just recently joked about “City of mercers” when playing Spider-man. With his knowledge of D&D and genuine interest in cRPG it is not too far fetched that he would win audition fair and square. I doubt he was casted because of his fame, but he certainly got to do the hype reveal because of that. Afterall, the actress who voices Jaheira also seems like an excellent cast (I genuinely thought it was the OG voice) and there was little fanfare about her - it is nice that she was mentioned by name though.
In case people didn’t know, Matt hosted promotional Dungeon Master stream back in D:OS2 days:
