Hideo Kojima Says He Cast His Solid Snake-alike for Death Stranding 2 To Try and Surpass Mads Mikkelsen

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’s latest trailer revealed a bevy of new information, including one particular casting that’s caused quite a stir thanks to the character’s distinctly Solid Snake-esque vibes. As it turns out, casting this character went a bit further, as director Hideo Kojima tried to find someone who could surpass a standout from the first Death Stranding.

On X/Twitter, Kojima wrote a lengthy post about the process of casting Italian actor Luca Marinelli to play Neil in Death Stranding 2. “During the pandemic, I was casting for DS2,” Kojima said. “Neil would be an important role that replaces Cliff from DS1. The fans would not be satisfied unless the casting would surpass Mads.”

Kojima first learned of Marinelli through his role in the Italian film They Call Me Jeeg, and a correspondence sprung up around the Japanese distribution of the film Martin Eden. Marinelli sent an email to Kojima, which read: “I grew up with Metal Gear. I am a big fan of yours. I am very honored that you saw the film I starred in. I wanted to tell you this directly.”

After seeing Marinelli in The Old Guard, Kojima sent the actor an email offer and talked with him after the actor wrapped filming The Eight Mountains. Once pitched, Marinelli agreed and, after learning Kojima was looking for someone to play Lucy, introduced the game director to his wife Alissa Jung.

“We did their scan and pcap [performance capture] during the height of the pandemic, but their on-set performance was excellent,” Kojima said. “You can see that in the digitized results from even the small bits of the trailer. I can only thank Luca and Alissa for agreeing to perform when we didn’t even have a script yet.”

Marinelli’s character, Neil, has been one of the breakout reveals from the latest Death Stranding 2 trailer. At its conclusion, we see Neil don a bandanna in the same way Solid Snake would in Metal Gear Solid, before directing a squad of soldiers in the same manner as Cliff in the first Death Stranding.

The casting has clearly been on Kojima’s mind for some time, as has the imagery of Luca donning the bandana. Back in 2020, Kojima talked about how Marinelli had caught his attention, adding: “I think if he donned a bandanna, he’d be a spitting image of Solid Snake!”

While it’s unlikely Neil is some multiversal Snake, the imagery certainly brings to mind Kojima’s legacy with the Metal Gear franchise. Hopefully, he’s picked the right man for the job. For more, check out IGN’s feature, Who Is Kojima’s New ‘Solid Snake’ and Why Death Stranding 2 Looks Like the Closest We’ll Ever Get to Another Metal Gear Solid.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to launch on June 26, 2025 exclusively on PlayStation 5.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.