Because Crunchyroll has refused to meet with representatives of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union to discuss a potential contract on upcoming productions, voice actor Kyle McCarley stated in a video posted on his YouTube channel on Tuesday that he may not return to his role as protagonist Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama in the upcoming English dub of Mob Psycho 100 III.

Update: Crunchyroll informed Kotaku in the following statement that it “will need to recast several roles.” The business did not specify specific positions. It reads as follows:

The third season of Mob Psycho 100 III will premiere on Crunchyroll as a SimulDub on the same day as the Japanese broadcast, to the delight of fans everywhere. We will produce the English dub in our Dallas production facilities, and in order to do this smoothly and in accordance with our production and casting standards, we will need to recast a few roles. We sincerely thank any outgoing cast for their efforts to earlier seasons and look forward to the audience enjoying the new voice talent.

According to McCarley, “It has been made quite plain to me that in the case of season three of Mob Psycho 100, Crunchyroll is not going to be producing that program under a SAG-AFTRA contract.” McCarley does not frequently work on non-union dubs because she is a member of the SAG-AFTRA union and the SAG-AFTRA Dubbing Steering Committee.

Despite this, McCarley offered Crunchyroll his non-union services for this season in exchange for Crunchyroll negotiating a prospective SAG-AFTRA deal for future projects. Crunchyroll has not cooperated with this offer as of the time of his video’s posting. If nothing changes, McCarley said, at least he might not come back to the program.

“Just to be very clear, it’s not about the money, I want to add this little comment. They just don’t want to put it on a union contract, but [Crunchyroll] was willing to pay me at least what I would receive on a union-scale contract and perhaps more “Added McCarley.

A SAG-contracted program is referred to as a union dub. Members often do not work for studios without contracts; instead, the studio must employ non-union personnel. Since most well-known performers in movies and TV shows belong to unions, most productions must as well in order to cast them. However, historically speaking, the dubbing sector has not been adequately unionized, particularly in the case of anime.

On Twitter, McCarley clarified a number of things regarding unions:

The main way that unions defend the interests of the employees they represent is through collective bargaining power. This means that rather than discussing your employment conditions with your employer one-on-one, the union negotiates the minimum standards for everyone at once. As a collective, you have influence in these talks, which usually results in better conditions for all employees. How much you are paid, how long and difficult your hours are, how frequently you receive breaks or time off, what safety measures are taken, etc.

By negotiating provisions that safeguard us against vocally demanding employment, SAG-AFTRA expressly aids voice over actors. On the work, we frequently have to yell or scream a lot, but our contracts make sure that this never lasts for an extended period of time. Our union has also gone to considerable measures to inform us and our employers about the risks of loud, demanding work. Other perks abound as well, but the two main ones I want to draw attention to are the health insurance and retirement plan.

On August 9 of the previous year, Sony’s Funimation Global Group finished buying Crunchyroll from AT&T. After the acquisition, Crunchyroll began using Funimation’s own dubbing facility to produce its English dubs.

After switching to remote recording in response to COVID-19 two years ago, Crunchyroll and FUNimation are now returning to in-person recording. Crunchyroll said that it had switched back to hiring Texas-based personnel in the studio after scores of dubs were created remotely, many of them employing talent from around the nation.

On October 5 on Tokyo MX and BS Fuji and on October 7 on Cartoon Network in Japan, the third season of the television anime adaptation of ONE’s Mob Psycho 100 manga will debut.

Aside from Asia, Crunchyroll will broadcast the anime in its original Japanese with English subtitles and dub when it airs in Japan. The initial two episodes were shown last month at Crunchyroll Expo.

The anime’s first season debuted in Japan in July 2016, and the second season did the same in January 2019. As both shows were shown in Japan, Crunchyroll streamed them. English dubs for the anime were broadcast by Funimation, and both shows were made available on home video. In October 2018, the first season of the first series began airing on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block.

New statement from Crunchyroll has been added to Kotaku.