Hideo Kojima is working on a sequel to Death Stranding, according to lead actor Norman Reedus.
“We just started working on the second one,” Reedus told Leo Edit (via Nibellion on Twitter) when asked about Death Stranding. He added: “It took me maybe two or three years to finish all the mocap sessions and everything. It takes a lot of work. And then the game came out, and it just won all these awards, and it was a huge thing, so we just started part two of that.”
Reedus, who starred in the original as Sam Bridges, has seemingly leaked what would have been a surprising sequel announcement. Despite selling a considerable 5 million copies as of March 2021, Kojima Productions has been quiet about its future projects.
Back in 2019, Kojima said that if he made a sequel, he’d “start from zero”, seemingly indicating that it would have major differences to the original. In 2020, he seemingly teased that he was thinking about a sequel, but told IGN that it didn’t represent “major plans, but just fragments of new ideas.”
Elsewhere in the new interview, Reedus shared how Guillermo Del Toro, who also lent his likeness to Death Stranding, first connected him with Kojima. “[Del Toro] called me up and said, ‘Hey, there’s a guy named Hideo Kojima, he’s gonna call you, just say yes.’ And I go, ‘What do you mean just say yes?’ He goes, ‘Stop being an asshole, just say yes.’
“Then I was in San Diego and [Kojima] came with a big group of people — he’s from Tokyo — and he showed me what he was working on, a game called Silent Hill. I was blown away by what he was showing me, and I was like, ‘Yes, let’s do this.’ It’s not Ms. Pacman; it’s so realistic, it’s so futuristic, it’s so complicated and beautiful, and I was completely blown away.”
Death Stranding was first released as a PS4 exclusive in 2019, followed by a PC version in July 2020. Most recently, Kojima Productions released Death Stranding Director’s Cut for PS5 and PC in late 2021 and March 2022, respectively. The Director’s Cut added “a long list of quality of life improvements,” according to our review.
For more on where the potential sequel may go, check out our Death Stranding ending explained feature.
Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN.