News

Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding Trailer Reveals Mads Mikkelsen as Cast Member

Game developer Hideo Kojima unveiled a new trailer for his upcoming Death Stranding game during the Game Awards event in Los Angeles on Thursday. The trailer reveals that Mads Mikkelsen has joined the game's cast, and a character featuring his likeness appears in the trailer. A character based on the appearance of film director Guillermo del Toro also appears in the video.

During the awards ceremony, game journalist Geoff Keighley presented Kojima with the 2016 Industry Icon Award, highlighting last year's awards where Kojima could not receive the award for his Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain game due to his then-ongoing conflict and eventual departure from Konami.

The reveal trailer for the game previously featured a 3D CG model based on Norman Reedus.

Kojima previously collaborated with Guillermo del Toro on Konami's cancelled Silent Hills title. Kojima told IGN that he "definitely want[s] to create something with [director Guillermo del Toro]," but added, "I have no idea what I'll be working on with him, if it'll be a game, a movie, anime." The film director had previously told IGN last year, "I love working with Kojima-san. […] We are still in touch. We are still friends and working into doing something together, but that's not going to be [Silent Hills]."

Reedus also previously collaborated with Kojima on the cancelled Silent Hills project. Like Death Stranding, Silent Hills' "P.T." playable teaser featured a 3D CG model based on Reedus.

Kojima Productions, Kojima's own development studio, is developing Death Stranding, and it will star Reedus. Kojima previously said the game will show "a different side of Norman Reedus than fans of The Walking Dead might expect." Kojima Productions is developing the game using a "well-known" third-party engine.

The game will be an action game, and will have open-world elements with "some degree of freedom." Kojima stated the game's name originates from the phenomenon of cetacean stranding, where dolphins and whales wash up on land and die. While other games offer elements analogous to "sticks" for gameplay, Death Stranding will also offer "ropes" to tie and link players together.

Kojima stated earlier that the game will have online gameplay, but it will also be fully playable in single player. The game will also include a female protagonist, but the character has not yet been cast.

Yoji Shinkawa, the character and mechanical designer for the Metal Gear Solid game series, hinted that he wanted to see mechs in the game. Shinkawa is currently working on the game alongside Kojima.

Update: Kojima Productions' panel at PlayStation Experience also revealed on Saturday that the company is collaborating with Guerrilla Games on the game, and Kojima Productions is using Guerrilla Games' Decima Engine to develop Death Stranding.