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If you were confused about the apparent Solid Snake dead ringer in some of the recent Death Stranding 2 trailers, it turns out you weren’t alone – the actor behind the character also noted the Metal Gear Solid similarities.
Speaking at Sydney Film Festival, Hideo Kojima spoke about actor Luca Marinelli – who he’s a big fan of, saying he chose him for Death Stranding 2 because he needed someone who “would surpass” Mads Mikkelsen in the first game. Marinelli was revealed to players in a trailer back in March, in which his garb – a gray bandana – drew immediate comparisons to Metal Gear ‘s long-suffering hero.
As it turns out, fans weren’t the only ones to draw those comparisons – so did Marinelli himself. Kojima says that when he asked the actor how he and his friends reacted to his Death Stranding 2 character reveal, Marinelli said: “‘Oh Snake is wonderful. I’m so happy to be Snake’.”
Kojima had to put that misconception to bed pretty quickly, telling Marinelli, “‘no, you’re not Snake. You just have a bandana on your head!” Unfortunately, we don’t know how Marinelli reacted to that reveal, but we do know that Kojima remains a huge fan of his actor.
“I needed someone who can top Mads [Mikkelsen] and Cliff,” he said. “I thought Luca could do it.” That intuition was proven correct once Marinelli arrived on set – “His acting was just so, so spectacular,” Kojima went on. “Léa [Seydoux] comes in or Norman [Reedus] comes in, they’re usually on their phones. But then when Luca started to perform, everyone put their phones down and concentrated.”
Putting aside the idea of the crew being on their phones for a front-row recording by two A-list actors for a moment, that seems like some serious praise. Kojima is well-known to collect actors he’s impressed by, and for a cinephile as prolific as him, getting his attention is no mean feat. Of course, you also have to pass the real-life vibe check if you want a role in one of his projects, so I guess Marinelli is a good hang, too.