"'Yes, I will gladly die for Super Earth'": Helldivers 2 writer had only 7 days to find unofficial face of the franchise John Helldiver, "the cheesiest, most insincere" man in the galaxy

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"'Yes, I will gladly die for Super Earth'": Helldivers 2 writer had only 7 days to find unofficial face of the franchise John Helldiver, "the cheesiest, most insincere" man in the galaxy News By Ashley Bardhan published 2 February 2026

"Sorry to all the Johns out there"

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It takes a lot of democratic dedication to be the face of Super Earth, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead learned while searching for an actor to play John Helldiver, an idiot and an inspiration.

Former lead writer Russ Nickel reminisces about it in a new episode of Dev Tales on the Helldivers 2 YouTube channel, to commemorate the second Helldivers 2 anniversary. The intergalactic shooter's intro cinematic is now iconic for birthing one John Helldiver, the game's unofficial, white-toothed mascot, but Arrowhead wasn't taking him seriously enough.

HELLDIVERS™ 2 Dev Tales: Intro Cinematic - YouTube Watch On

"'This is gonna be John Helldiver,'" Nickel remembers thinking. "'We can't just get someone who's good. We need to get the funniest person we can possibly find.'" Arrowhead agreed, but instructed Nickel to find him in no more than seven days. Luckily, Craig Lee Thomas, the actor who ultimately snagged the part, was available and prepared to be patriotic.

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Once Thomas learned about John Helldiver, he quickly filmed and sent a self-tape and discovered he was a top-three candidate for the role later that day. "I was like, 'Jesus, they are moving f***ing quick on this,'" Thomas says during his politely bleep-ed Dev Tales interview.

The next day, Arrowhead made sure Thomas had a passport – he was all set to film on Sunday. Nickel had made his deadline.

"'Hey, I'm the cheesiest, most insincere' – that thing is something that I always have fun doing," Thomas says about being John.

"Sorry to all the Johns out there," Nickel adds. But "something that's so key to Super Earth is that all of the citizens totally buy in. They're like, 'Yes, managed democracy is perfect. It's the ideal form of democracy. Yes, I will gladly die for Super Earth, because it's the right thing to do.'"

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Helldivers 2's next premium Warbond comes with a reloadable, exploding hammer, but what's got fans' attention is Arrowhead's tease of a returning faction from the original game.

CATEGORIES PS5 PC Gaming Xbox Series X Platforms PlayStation Xbox Ashley BardhanSenior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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