Death Stranding has become a cult hit for a faction of video game players, but its upcoming live-action adaptation, courtesy of A24, is already being treated with skepticism. For all its narrative complexity, Hideo Kojima’s 2019 game already feels a lot like a movie. It boasts a cast of incredible actors like Léa Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, and Margaret Qualley — and even some directors, like Guillermo del Toro and Nicholas Winding Refn. Their performances ground Kojima’s heady sci-fi vision with the intimacy of a smaller-scale production. The idea of a film adaptation without its original cast feels callous, not to mention unnecessary.
Kojima hasn’t revealed much about the live-action remake, only that it’ll tell the story of Death Stranding in a way that can only be told on film. That may be enough to satisfy purists for the time being, but for those who might prefer a new story set in the world of the game, Kojima’s got you covered, too. The game developer announced his plans to spearhead a Death Stranding anime in a recent interview with Vogue Japan. It wasn’t clear if this would be a sequel, a spinoff, or another remake of the game — but now that Kojima has found a writer to pen the script, we now have a better idea of his plans for the project.
