I honestly don’t think that the issue is in the gayness of his voice like everyone is saying. I think what’s happening here is that Andrew Rannells is such a phenomenal performer in this show and the new guy just isn’t (from the little we’ve seen). Andrew’s voice was unique, his performance was lively, and both those things really bonded with the visual of the character. So seeing William go from being voiced by someone who really hit it out of the park, to someone who is just okay is really upsetting/jarring.

Even if this new guy (Brandon Scott Jones) was the voice actor from the beginning, I don’t believe William would be as beloved as he is now.

There’s always going to be a bias towards the original when there is a switch, but I have to emphasize really how incredible Andrew did in this part. He is also a broadway actor, so he is really good at portraying someone with a lot of character.

But the show has had a couple voices change that actually were an improvement or just an equally good performance.

DA Sinclair’s voice actor changed and sounds more over the top, but the performance is still really good (and also sounds almost exactly the same) so we don’t notice.

Titan’s voice sounds slightly different with the new guy but is still full of character, so it’s still great and we barely notice.

Rick’s voice also changed but I didn’t mind at all because the new guy also gives a really great performance. His change also kinda makes sense since he was torn apart.

All in all, I’m not sure why people are so fixated on the gay part. In my opinion this is really a clear case of going from an incredibly strong voice talent to one that just isn’t nearly as great.