Kojima Productions premiered a brand new, 10-minute lengthy trailer for Death Stranding 2 at SXSW over the latest weekend, and whereas it options some acquainted faces – like Norman Reedus and Lea Seydoux, who reprise their roles from the primary Death Stranding – the trailer opens on a brand new face: Luca Marinelli. But Marinelli isn’t simply enjoying a brand new character within the Death Stranding universe… He appears poised to change into Kojima’s new Solid Snake.
Who is Luca Marinelli enjoying in Death Stranding 2?
Marinelli is an Italian actor who supplies the voice and likeness of the character Neil in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. While the overwhelming majority of Marinelli’s movie roles have been in Italian language productions, he’s possible greatest recognized to English-speaking audiences because the immortal mercenary Nicky from Netflix’s The Old Guard.
In the newest trailer for Death Stranding 2, Marinelli’s Neil is first proven in an interrogation room, being accused of unknown crimes by a person in a go well with. Neil says he was solely doing the “soiled work” for this suited man and appears to be making an attempt to finish the working association he has with them. The man angrily responds that Neil “has no alternative” however to maintain working for him.
The scene then jumps to Neil speaking to a Bridges worker named Lucy (performed by Marinelli’s real-life spouse, actress Alissa Jung). This dialog hints on the pair’s romantic relationship, and likewise reveals that the job Neil is doing for the suited man is smuggling cargo — brain-dead pregnant ladies, to be exact.
Wait, brain-dead pregnant ladies?
One of probably the most iconic pictures from the unique Death Stranding is Norman Reedus’ Sam Porter Bridges with a glowing orange flask containing a child strapped to his chest. The toddler he carries is a Bridge Baby, or BB; a seven-month fetus eliminated by way of c-section from a brain-dead mom. Such a situation creates a limbo state between life and loss of life, which in flip permits BBs to speak with the world of the lifeless. BBs can then assist their grownup carriers detect Beached Things, or BTs, that are malevolent souls trapped on this planet of the dwelling that trigger Voidouts.
Okay, breathe, we’re virtually carried out. Prior to the occasions of the primary recreation, the US Government was experimenting with BBs to elucidate the Voidouts, massive harmful occasions brought on by BTs that may degree total cities much like a nuclear bomb. However, the research was discontinued after a BB experiment created a Voidout in Manhattan, destroying the town and killing the US President. Except the experiments on BBs did proceed, in secret, therefore why Neil is smuggling within the brain-dead pregnant ladies. He’s presumably doing this for the United States authorities in order that it may proceed its unlawful analysis.
Is Solid Snake in Death Stranding 2?
The new SXSW Death Stranding 2 trailer ends with a shot of Marinelli’s Neil tying a bandana round his brow. In that second he undeniably appears very very like Solid Snake – the much-loved protagonist of Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid collection.
So does this imply that Solid Snake is in Death Stranding 2? Not fairly – however the visible similarity between Neil and Snake is actually intentional. To perceive the connection between the 2 characters you have to return to 2020, when Hideo Kojima posted an excerpt from an interview he took half in on his official Instagram.
One of the questions requested was “Which creators and actors at present have your consideration?” To this Kojima responded, “There are many actors that I observe. Luca Marinelli just lately caught my eye after watching “The Old Guard” and “Martin Eden.”
“I believe if he donned a bandana, he’d be a spitting picture of Solid Snake!” Kojima added.
Fast-forward to SXSW, and we now have footage of Marinelli donning a bandana and searching just like the spitting picture of Solid Snake. To be clear, Neil shouldn’t be (so far as we perceive) Solid Snake – the universes of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding are separate. However, it’s plain that Kojima is referencing his most well-known creation.
How Death Stranding 2 connects to Metal Gear Solid
Neil’s Snake cosplay isn’t only a cheeky homage and easter egg for Kojima followers, nonetheless. The new trailer is deliberately evoking Metal Gear at each alternative. To proceed pulling on the Neil thread, the trailer makes it clear that Neil turns into Beached sooner or later. His soul is stranded within the dwelling world, very like what occurred to Cliff Unger (Mads Mikkelsen) within the first recreation.
Like Unger, Neil’s Beached kind takes on the guise of a soldier accompanied by a platoon of undead warriors. During this reveal within the trailer, a narrator talks in regards to the re-emergence of the United States’ gun tradition on the “new continent.”
It harkens again to one of many greatest themes Kojima explored all through the Metal Gear collection: the proliferation of weapons, notably nuclear missiles, and the way arms destabilize humanity. This has been a key theme throughout a lot of Kojima’s work all through the years, with virtually each Metal Gear recreation being about stopping nuclear weapon proliferation. The irony is that Snake should typically use weapons to cease nuclear battle, however even that is proven to have a corrosive impact on each his and Big Boss’ soul. This anti-armaments stance might be why there are a number of Metal Gear video games the place non-lethal playthroughs are potential.
While the thematic parallels are clear to see, there might also be one thing of a creative philosophy connection, too. Neil might be a “model” of Solid Snake by means of metaphysics. Beached Things are deceased souls tethered to the world of the dwelling, and what’s Snake if not lifeless (not less than within the inventive sense – Metal Gear as a franchise appears over, remasters and remakes however.) Perhaps Neil is Kojima’s method of claiming the soul of Snake is trapped on this planet of Death Stranding, therefore why Neil’s face briefly flashes right into a cranium in the course of the trailer.
Outside of Neil, the trailer incorporates a second main reference to Metal Gear when Heartman appears to mix the ship, DHV Magellan, with a colossal BT to kind a humanoid bio-robotic large, not not like the Sahalanthropus from Metal Gear Solid 5. While the Metal Gear machines from the MGS collection are sometimes used to launch nuclear weapons, the Magellan is, in a method, additionally housing nukes if the BT it combines with can even trigger Voidouts.
Speaking of MGS 5, the final time Kojima launched a trailer as cinematic (and as lengthy) as the latest Death Stranding 2 preview was the 10-minute lengthy Red Band trailer for Metal Gear Solid 5. Both are epic in scope, presenting the characters as in the event that they had been film stars, and mixing gameplay and cutscenes into one, heroic showcase for Kojima’s latest recreation.
Will there be one other Kojima Metal Gear Solid recreation?
By now it’s fairly clear that we are going to by no means get one other Metal Gear Solid recreation from Hideo Kojima. He was compelled to depart the franchise behind after his departure from Konami, and so any MGS recreation going ahead – such because the upcoming remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 – might be produced with out his involvement.
Despite this, it’s clear that the imagery and themes of the collection are nonetheless burned in Kojima’s creativeness. With Death Stranding 2, Kojima won’t be making a recreation like Metal Gear Solid, however he’s clearly taking inspiration from his personal collection to create a brand new chapter for Death Stranding.
The trailer for the sequel makes it clear that Kojima’s ambitions for Death Stranding 2 are even greater than they had been for the primary recreation, with extra various environments (like rainforests and oceans) and seemingly a better emphasis on fight. Combined with the visuals, themes, and new gameplay, Death Stranding 2 appears nearer than ever to being a brand new Metal Gear Solid recreation, even when it doesn’t share the identical title.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.
