Gears of War: E-Day Characters and Voice Cast

Characters and cast

“Not stated” means the sources we checked do not name the actor.

Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago

The two leads are young veterans just back from the Pendulum Wars. They are not close when the story begins. Both are grieving Carlos Santiago, Dom’s older brother and Marcus’s best friend, who died shortly before the war ended.

Their situations differ. IGN’s review describes Marcus as ready to re-enlist and hoping Dom will join him, while Dom wants to return to his wife Maria and their two young children. The game is partly the story of how the two become the pair players know from the original trilogy.

The casting was announced on November 7, 2024, the eighteenth anniversary of the first game.

Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes

Mags is a former Gear who now works at Kalona’s Imulsion refinery: a hardened veteran with her own history. Lucas is a young cadet and communications officer who never saw the front lines, despite wanting nothing more.

Art director Aryan Hanbeck says the aim was not to create copies of the leads. He compares the squad to a car: Marcus and Dom in the front seats, Mags and Lucas in the back, with different roles that all matter to the journey. In an early scene, when asked for next of kin, neither Carter nor Reyes gives one.

How the squad forms

The four are not a unit at first. Creative director Matt Searcy describes the moment: the road opens, Wretches pour out, everybody runs the other way, and these four, still in plain clothes, look at one another and run toward it. They share an instinct before they have even been introduced.

Tai Kaliso and other allies

Tai is a fan favourite from the comics and Gears of War 2, and he plays a large part in the June 2026 gameplay demo. The Coalition says it wanted to honour the character’s South Islands roots. Heta-Morris holds the New Zealand bench-press record and has been Aotearoa’s arm wrestling champion since 2012; Fawcette calls him “a living Tai.”

Bravo’s path also crosses other squads and soldiers in the city. Searcy says the game has “a ton of characters,” each with their own history.

Characters people ask about

Search suggestions include several names from later games. Here is what the sources support.

• JD Fenix and Kait Diaz: not in the story. IGN notes the prequel setting rules out the protagonists of Gears 4 and 5.
• Maria Santiago: referred to as Dom’s wife, who is in Ephyra with their children.
• Carlos Santiago: dead before the story starts, but central to it.
• Augustus Cole, Damon Baird and Anya Stroud: we found no official confirmation that they appear in the campaign.

Playing as them in multiplayer

The Coalition says every major character and skin that appears in the campaign can be unlocked in multiplayer on day one, among more than 60 character skins across COG and Locust. Classes in Horde Siege are separate from characters, so any skin can be used with any class.

Quick questions