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Kyle McCarley May Not Star in Mob Psycho 100 III Anime Due to Disagreement with Crunchyroll about Union Dubs (Updated)

Voice actor Kyle McCarley revealed on Tuesday in a video on his YouTube channel that he may not reprise his role as protagonist Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama in the upcoming English dub of Mob Psycho 100 III because Crunchyroll is not complying with his request that the company meet with Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union representatives to negotiate a potential contract on future productions.

Update: Crunchyroll sent the following statement to Kotaku, revealing that it "will need to recast some roles." The company did not state which roles. The statement reads:

Crunchyroll is excited to bring fans worldwide the dub for the third season of Mob Psycho 100 III as a SimulDub, the same day-and-date as the Japanese broadcast. We'll be producing the English dub at our Dallas production studios, and to accomplish this seamlessly per our production and casting guidelines, we will need to recast some roles. We're excited for fans to enjoy the new voice talent and greatly thank any departing cast for their contributions to previous seasons.

"It has been made abundantly clear to me that in the case of season three of Mob Psycho 100, Crunchyroll is not going to be producing that show on a SAG-AFTRA contract," McCarley said. McCarley is a SAG-AFTRA union member and part of the SAG-AFTRA Dubbing Steering Committee and does not usually work on non-union dubs.

Despite this, McCarley went to Crunchyroll with the offer that he would work non-union on this season on the condition that Crunchyroll negotiate a potential contract on future productions with SAG-AFTRA. At the time of his video's posting, Crunchyroll has not complied to this offer. McCarley concluded that he, at least, may not return to the show if the situation does not change.

"I just want to put this little note in here to be very, very clear: it's not about money. [Crunchyroll] was prepared to pay me at least what I would be getting on a union-scale contract, possibly more, they just don't want to put it on a union contract," McCarley said.

A union dub is a show with a SAG contract. If a studio does not have a contract, members do not generally work for them, and the studio has to hire non-union talent instead. The majority of notable film and TV actors are union members, meaning that most productions also have to be union in order to cast them. The dubbing industry, however, is historically under-unionized, especially when it comes to anime.

McCarley added several points about unions on Twitter:

Unions protect the workers they represent chiefly by giving them collective bargaining power, meaning that instead of negotiating the terms of your employment individually, one-on-one, the union negotiates baseline minimums for everyone all at once. This generally leads to better terms for all workers, because as a collective, you have sway in these negotiations. How much you get paid, how long your hours are, how hard those hours are, how often you get breaks or time off, what safety precautions are taken, etc.

Just one example of how SAG-AFTRA helps voice over performers, specifically, is by negotiating terms that protect us from vocally stressful work. We often have to do a lot of screaming/shouting on the job, but our contracts ensure it's never for too long a time. Our union's also gone to great lengths to educate both us and our employers on the dangers of vocally stressful work. And there are plenty of other benefits, but the big ones I want to point out are the health insurance and retirement fund.

Sony's Funimation Global Group completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T on August 9 last year. Following the acquisition, Crunchyroll has used Funimation's in-house dubbing studio for its English dubs.

Subsequently, Crunchyroll is moving back to in-person recording, two years after Crunchyroll and FUNimation switched over to remote recording in response to COVID-19. After dozens of dubs produced remotely, many using talent from around the country, Crunchyroll confirmed that it has moved back to bringing Texas-based talent into the studio.

The third season of the television anime of ONE's Mob Psycho 100 manga will premiere on October 5 on Tokyo MX and BS Fuji and on October 7 on Cartoon Network in Japan.

Crunchyroll will stream the anime worldwide excluding Asia in Japanese with English subtitles and with an English dub as it airs in Japan. The first two episodes screened during the Crunchyroll Expo convention last month.

The first season of the anime premiered in Japan in July 2016, and the second season premiered in January 2019. Crunchyroll streamed both series as they aired in Japan. Funimation streamed English dubs for the anime and released both series on home video. The first series aired on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block starting in October 2018.

Update: Added new statement from Crunchyroll to Kotaku. Source: Kotaku (Isaiah Colbert)

Source: Kyle McCarley's Twitter account