Hideo Kojima made his name in the video game industry as the creator of games like Metal Gear and Snatcher, and his work has often been so cinematic that fans (and detractors) have joked that what he really wanted to do was direct films. So perhaps it’s no surprise that he currently has plans to expand his work into film and television. But that’s all happening while he also helms a sequel to the Norman Reedus-led Death Stranding, and has two other original games on the horizon. It’s a lot to keep track of, which is why we’re putting it all in one place for your easy reference. Here’s everything we know about Hideo Kojima’s upcoming work.
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Easily the most high-profile thing we know coming out of Kojima Productions right now is Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. The sequel sees the return of both Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges and Léa Seydoux as Fragile, but also has several other big names joining the cast this time around, with Elle Fanning, Shioli Kutsuna, Mad Max director George Miller, and filmmaker Fatih Akin all set to play new characters. On The Beach will follow Sam after he is recruited to help “build bridges” to bring the rest of the world together as he did for America in the original game. Much of that will involve the same traversal, shooting, and online infrastructure-building as the first Death Stranding, though Kojima may well through players a few curve balls, too. The game will launch on PlayStation 5 in 2025.
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While Death Stranding 2 is a known quantity at this point, Kojima Productions is working on two other games that we only know through teases. The first of these enigmas is OD, a horror game published by Xbox Game Studios. Whether that means it will only come to Xbox and Windows, we don’t yet know, as Microsoft has been releasing games on other platforms of late. We do know that the game will star Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier, and will be co-written by Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele. Some footage of the game leaked last year that implied there might be a multiplayer component.
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The most recent game announcement out of Kojima Productions is Physint (working title). We haven’t seen any footage or even concept art of the game, but Kojima says it will be a return to the espionage genre that made him famous. He described it as “the culmination of [his] work” during the January 31 State of Play presentation, and said that it is both a game and “also a movie at the same time in terms of look, story, theme, cast, acting, fashion, and sound.” We don’t know what that entails yet, but the game is likely a long way away.
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Those are the video game projects Kojima is working on, but he’s also making moves in film. This includes a movie set in the Death Stranding universe, though it won’t be a direct adaptation of the 2019 game. In an interview with Variety, Kojima said he only ever thought of the original Death Stranding “as a game,” thus has no plans to look back on it for the film. He will be supervising the plot but not directing the movie, which is being made in partnership with A24 and Hammerstone Studios, as he can’t dedicate himself to that with three games in development.
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While the movie is the highest-profile adaptation we know about, Kojima told Variety there are “several” Death Stranding projects in the works. He didn’t go into specifics, so now we get to speculate about whether there might be Death Stranding television shows, anime, books, comics, audio dramas, or other works in our future.
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In the same Variety interview, Kojima said he is moving through three “phases” within his studio’s lifetime. The first phase was to create the original Death Stranding, the second is the one it’s in now, which is to create movies, anime, TV dramas, and more based on the IP. The third phase, he says, will begin with Physint, and could include internal film and TV plans that are not directly tied to a video game IP.
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Kojima has signed with Hollywood agency WME, which created a team to work with him. He told Variety that he feels the agency understands him and that having a team would help him better juggle his projects and his work with actors.
“Well, there are many big agencies out there,” Kojima told Variety. “I’ve met many people over the years, but it’s important to me that I work with people who understand games and understand me. I also need people who can basically traffic control all that I do. Until now, I’ve been personally handling exchanges with all the actors that wanted to work together, but it has become difficult to manage on my own. And with all the offers I receive, the most important thing is knowing who to trust. WME created a whole team for me, and they understand me the most. I feel a lot of love from them. They are very powerful within the industry as well, of course. I don’t intend to make myself 10 times busier than I am already. I just want to be able to do everything that I want to do in my remaining lifetime without wasting time. I can also learn more about what the world is demanding, so it’s really great.”
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