Even after the trailers that aired at E3 2016 and The Game Awards last week, it’s difficult to discern exactly what’s going on in Hideo Kojima’s new game Death Stranding. If you found yourself confused by the beached whales, crying infants, and skull-headed soldiers showcased in the two clips, don’t fret — one of the lead actors set to appear in the game doesn’t quite understand all of it, either.
The trailer shown at The Game Awards introduced acclaimed actor Mads Mikkelsen as a character that’s likely to serve as the game’s primary antagonist. Mikkelsen is currently on a press tour supporting his upcoming appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and along the way he found time to field a few questions about Death Stranding for Birth.Movies.Death.
The Danish actor apparently boarded the project after seeing Norman Reedus star in its first trailer. He praised the “emotion” and “sensuality” that he saw in that footage.
However, Mikkelsen wouldn’t classify himself as a gamer. He didn’t even fully know who Kojima was before working with him on Death Stranding, according to a report from Kotaku. Having spent some time in the video game auteur’s company, he now refers to the director as “a very brilliant man,” even if some of that brilliance sometimes went over his head.
“The stuff he told me?” said Mikkelsen, “I only understood some of it.” The actor went on to comment that Kojima is creating “something completely new” with Death Stranding.
There’s clearly a lot of excitement surrounding Death Stranding, both from the people involved with the project and fans looking forward to playing a brand new title helmed by Kojima. However, we may well have to wait a while before we find out what the its mysterious narrative is all about — no release date has been given as of yet, but given Kojima only officially left Konami in late 2015, it’s likely that the game is still in the early stage of development.
