Earlier today, news surfaced that Kirby Morrow, who voiced Cole through 13 seasons of Ninjago, has unexpectedly died. I was sad to hear this news, since I always liked Cole, and I was really glad he got a season in Master Of The Mountain.
But what does this mean for Cole going forward? I don’t think the show will write Cole out or kill him off, since he’s been one of the central characters for many years-even before Lloyd came on the scene. The only other scenario I can think of is hiring a new voice actor for Cole. But, whatever happens, we still appreciate Kirby Morrow’s contributions to the Ninjago franchise.
I just saw the news on Twitter about him passing away, it’s so awful! I was a fan of a bunch of his work.
I do agree with you though, I think they will most likely hire a new voice actor to play Cole, considering that he is still a fairly popular character.
I did some research, I cried ALL night when I found out on google but apparently he… ehem… got himself dead… in other words… was a huge alcoholic and… you know the rest
Lego has made an official announcement about Cole. From 2022 onward, he will be voiced by Andrew Francis, who also voiced Morro and other characters in the show. And one other Lego character who…well…let me give you a hint:
I am still disappointed they weren’t brave enough to just retire Cole as a character. It is kind of disrespectful towards Kirby Morrow’s legacy to be honest.
I think it definitely respects Kirby Morrow’s legacy to pass the role on to another masterful voice actor. Andrew Francis is one of the few I would trust with such a responsibility, and I think he’ll do Cole justice. Moreover, from a story standpoint, I don’t think Ninjago could really continue as a line without all six of the main ninja. The Ninjago team explained their options and reasoning well in the official announcement, and I never hoped they would do anything besides recast–it keeps not only the character but also the legacy of Kirby Morrow and the spirit of Ninjago alive.
From a story perspective it was impossible due to the end of the recent season and because Tommy himself said he’s going to be important in 2022 storyline, plus they just got rid of nya in seabound so starting a new season suddenly without cole would be confusing.
I mean, they could have still recast him only for a temporary time in order to give the character a proper ending, and then let go.
I hate how this series still hasn’t matured enough to let go of at least one character even after 10 years.
They’ve tried killing off Cole as a character back in 2018 during the March of the Oni special, but nah, I guess they weren’t brave enough for that neither then, nor now.
But Cole was one of the four founding members of the ninja, and he’s still an important part of the team to this day. Getting rid of him would be like trying to get rid of Ron Weasley or Chewbacca.
Killing off such an important character would definitely bring higher stakes to the series. There’s certainly arguments for and against it, but the current situation is one of the better reasons to do it.
To be fair, I wouldn’t have minded seeing Chewbacca die in Episode 9, the fake out death they did in that movie really bothered me.
Chewbacca has always been more of a animal sidekick rather than a character, so seeing him die in particular wouldn’t have been so bad (especially if it was used properly as a way to grow Rey as a character, which seemed to have been the original intent).
And I mean, even within the context of LEGO, Bionicle had Matoro die, and look in what a high regard the Bionicle story is held now because of that. With Bionicle, the writers clearly knew that they were righting a story, not a toy commerical. With Ninjago, it is kind of the other way around, for better or worse.
