Greg Cipes has been lending his voice to the animated Beast Boy since 2003, including in Teen Titans, Teen Titans GO!, and Young Justice.
However, the actor has said that he's been fired by Warner Bros., revealing that his dismissal came shortly after he announced that he'd been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. It's said that the studio is looking to "steal" Cipes' voice and replace him with a "mimic," all because he has health issues.
Pretty despicable, right? Well, social media sleuths have done some digging, and there may be more to the story than initially meets the eye.
Despite saying he was fired on February 14, Cipes confirmed on July 28 that he'd just finished recording his lines for Teen Titans GO! season 10. He's also shared several conspiracy theories about vaccines on social media, claiming that he got Parkinson's after "they released COVID on us."
Cipes has since muddied the waters of his supposed firing by revealing, "After almost 24 years playing Beast Boy, [Warner Bros.] made me audition three times while the rest of the cast was offered to the next season without auditions. It’s discrimination."
In a post about using coffee enemas to treat Parkinson's, he added, "Yet I can still perform as Beast Boy because he’s in me, I created his voice and his personality and the way he talks."
Piecing together what's said here, it seems Cipes wasn't fired and was instead asked to audition for the next season of Teen Titans GO! Whether he's since been let go due to his ill health or because of his posts on X and Instagram isn't clear.
For what it's worth, Deadline has shared the following, suggesting that while Cipes has lost the Beast Boy role, he hasn't been fired from Teen Titans Go!, and was offered a different role due to creative differences.
"A source close to the animated series noted that the role of Beast Boy in Teen Titans Go! was in the process of being recast due to creative differences, and this decision wasn’t made in response to Cipes’ health diagnosis revelation. In addition, Deadline hears that Cipes was offered to voice a different character on the show, for which he has already recorded lines for, and a development deal for a potential starring vehicle in the future."
"I helped create Beast Boy. Being the first actor to bring him to life, I made him who he is along with the great writers and people from Warner Bros. who allowed me to co-create this character over the past twenty years," Cipes told us in 2022. "There’s never been a more special situation that I’ve been in and I’m so grateful."
"He’s part of my life in so many dimensions and forms and inspires me just as I inspire him. It’s quite a dance me and Beast Boy have together."
Here are the various social posts we've referred to throughout these articles: