David Menkin is having a very good week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I open my computer, nice things just sort of pop out at me,\u201d he says. We\u2019re speaking over a video call on a Tuesday, just a few days before his next big project will be released: Pragmata<\/em>, Capcom\u2019s long-in-development third-person shooter set on the moon. He\u2019s been receiving congratulations from people who have played it pre-release and seen his name in the credits. Though reviews have already gone up, he\u2019s still not allowed to tell anyone he\u2019s starring in the game as it hasn\u2019t yet been released at the time of our chat.<\/p>\n \u201cI have gamers and streamers sending me messages and I’m able to sort of go, \u2018Thank you,\u2019 and send a little blue heart. But I can’t tell my brother or my sister,\u201d Menkin says. \u201cOne of my nephews, he’s done that thing where he’s like, \u2018So, you’ve been up to something?\u2019 And I just shrug glacially.\u201d<\/p>\n He recently had to go back into the booth to record some more lines for Pragmata<\/em> trailers, which prompted an uneasy feeling. \u201cI realized that I had to mourn it again,\u201d Menkin says.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, end of the year, I sat on some stairs in London with a bunch of flowers that [Capcom had] given me to say thank you, and I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. You’re not allowed to talk about this stuff and you have to mourn it by yourself and nobody really understands,\u201d Menkin says. \u201cAnd it’s like, \u2018It’s just a game.\u2019 No, it’s not. This has been like a year and a half of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Menkin plays Hugh, an astronaut who ventures to a research base on the moon. His team winds up decimated and he\u2019s quickly attacked by killer robots. With the childlike android Diana at his side \u2014 or rather, on his back \u2014 he has to investigate the robot threat and ensure it doesn\u2019t reach Earth.<\/p>\n Menkin joined the cast of Pragmata<\/em> in 2024. He recalled seeing it in the \u201cFuture of Gaming\u201d PlayStation 5 reveal stream in June 2020, and then \u201ccompletely forgotten about it.\u201d And who can blame him? Pragmata<\/em> was originally supposed to be released in 2022, and finally arrived on April 17, 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got the job, they brought us in to do something really nice, and very unusual in our industry, unfortunately, which is a table read,\u201d he says. \u201cI got to work with two of my fellow actors, one of them being Grace [Saif], who plays Diana. And that’s when we got the lore, not just of the game, but of the long history of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n They read through some of the early cutscenes, like when Hugh names Diana and when they get to the 3D-printed New York Level, and were off to the races.<\/p>\n So much of Pragmata<\/em> hinges on the relationship between Hugh and Diana. But Menkin and Saif were never actually together to build that relationship. \u201cIt would’ve caused a bit of a technical nightmare for [the development team],\u201d Menkin says. The bulk of the game, like most games, was recorded with its actors in separate locales. \u201cWe’re used to it. This is the way this industry works.\u201d<\/p>\n Menkin would record his lines, and then Saif would be able to work off his recordings when she stepped into the booth. Menkin notes he had to step away from recording Pragmata<\/em> for a time, and when he returned, Saif was ahead of him. \u201cSo I made sure that I never caught up so that I could hear her amazing performance at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n He likened the process to what it\u2019s like for a film or TV actor to work across from a tennis ball standing in for a CGI character. \u201cWe have all these safety protocols in place to make sure that things stay real and that I’m given what I need in order to be able to imagine it correctly or imagine it well enough for it all to sort of come together,\u201d Menkin says. He notes how the directors, writers, audio team, and more would join forces to make \u201cthe magic of games.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have zero transferable skills. All I can do is act,\u201d Menkin says. \u201cThank God there are all these people making sure I can feel safe enough to do my job and then at the end it all comes together and it works.\u201d<\/p>\n Pragmata<\/em> is a new IP and not part of any established franchise, like some of Menkin\u2019s other roles, such as Malos in Xenoblade Chronicles 2<\/em> or Barnabus in Final Fantasy XVI<\/em>. (When I ask if Menkin wondered if he was joining a Mega Man game back in 2024, he quips, \u201cI am contractually unable to respond to this.\u201d) That newness brings different challenges for the role.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich shoes should I put on? Hopefully they’re the right ones,\u201d Menkin says. \u201cI’ve never had an experience like this where I went in and I realized that I had to just accept who Hugh was and I had to sort of go all in on playing him and then I had to just leave it behind and hope.\u201d<\/p>\n He compares that to the nervousness of recording lines as Luke Skywalker for Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga<\/em>. \u201cYour heart’s coming out of your ass. You’re just panicking, but you’re also thrilled at the same time [\u2026] You hope that you’ll get this feeling again, either feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n Menkin has always been a huge space and science fiction geek. \u201cMy entire career has been around the moon,\u201d he says, and he\u2019s not wrong. He played Neil Armstrong in a short film and portrayed the astronaut again in the audio drama Buzz<\/em> opposite John Lithgow. \u201cI’ve done all the famous quotes, Neil’s famous quotes,\u201d Menkin says. \u201cI know so much about the fucking moon.\u201d<\/p>\n That passion for space, and the moon in particular, made it so Menkin was beside himself when the Artemis 2 mission took place the same month Pragmata<\/em> was goong to be released. He wanted to post about it on his social media pages, but strict embargoes and contracts made it so he was wary of doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn’t want anyone from Capcom to be like, \u2018Excuse me, is that a picture of the moon or is that a picture of our<\/em> moon?\u2019\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n Menkin describes himself as a \u201creally bad liar,\u201d meaning he had to \u201cshut down, fully boot down\u201d in order not to spill his secrets in the lead-up to the game\u2019s launch. When the review embargo lifted Monday and people started chatting about Pragmata<\/em> online, Menkin took the chance to sneak in a post. He put REM\u2019s \u201cMan on the Moon\u201d over an image of Pragmata<\/em>\u2019s moon and shared it as a story. \u201cI was like, \u2018Just get it out of your system, go on,\u2019\u201d he says. Now that the game is out, though, he\u2019s finally free.<\/p>\n \u201cMy job is so fucking weird,\u201d Menkin muses.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pragmata-hugh-and-diana-1.jpeg?q=49&fit=crop&w=1300&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Capcom via Polygon<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pragmata-hugh-and-diana-6.jpeg?q=49&fit=crop&w=1300&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Capcom via Polygon<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pragmata-times-square-5.jpeg?q=49&fit=crop&w=1300&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Capcom via Polygon<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pragmata-moon-base-1.jpeg?q=49&fit=crop&w=1300&dpr=2\")
\n <\/picture>Image: Capcom via Polygon<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n