Portal 2 Wheatley recordings were "exhausting" says Merchant

Co-creator of The Office, Stephen Merchant, has been talking to MTV about his role as Wheatley in Portal 2. Merchat said that the role was one of the most exhausting he's ever done, but would be interested in coming back for a sequel after seeing fans' reactions to the game.

While the Office and Extras star has never played Portal, he says that Valve were able to quickly get him up to speed with a series of clips from the game. While the high energy nature of the recording sessions initially put him off ever doing a similar project again, he was turned around by fans' enthusiasm after the game's release.

"What I was really pleased by how people seemed to respond to it in the way they do with a movie they've enjoyed, or a TV show they've enjoyed. They seemed to respond to it as entertainment.

"It never occurred to me that people would respond to it in the way they do with other stuff I've done. I felt like, 'Oh, actually this is a really legitimate, creative art form now.'"

Finally, Merchant admits he knows nothing of any future plans for Wheatley or the Portal series, but would consider reprising his role.

"I'm a robot," he says, "I don't need to die. They could bring me back anyway if they wanted. Make it a prequel!"

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Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.