Skip to main content

A year later, Mads Mikkelsen still doesn’t understand ‘Death Stranding’

Death Stranding - Teaser Trailer - TGA 2016 - 4K

Hideo Kojima’s PlayStation 4 exclusive Death Stranding has confused just about everyone with its bizarre trailers, which have shown a baby connected to a man with an umbilical cord, bodies floating toward the heavens, and a terrifying Mads Mikkelsen connected to undead-looking creatures with a series of cables. Mikkelsen has said in the past that the game’s story was confusing to him, and a year later, his time working on the project has done little to make it clearer.

Speaking to Total Film during Festival de Cannes, Mikkelsen explained that the process of acting in Death Stranding has been strange for someone most familiar with traditional film an television production, but Kojima’s story has been what keeps him interested — despite it not being clear exactly what’s going on.

“He tries to explain it again and and again, and I thought I had it, but then this happens and I’ve lost it again,” Mikkelsen said in the interview. “It’s too complicated. It’s too crazy. It’s too beautiful. It felt a bit like being in drama school: ‘Just jump in and [improvise] the scene. This is what happens. Don’t question it.'”

Mikkelson’s role in the game hasn’t been completely explained yet, though he is presumably an antagonist standing in the path of Norman Reedus’ character. Reedus has been working with Hideo Kojima for several years, beginning with the canceled horror title Silent Hills. It never saw the light of day, but its P.T. teaser was absolutely terrifying and became a cult classic, despite being removed from the PlayStation Store.

We haven’t seen any actual gameplay from Death Stranding yet, but we do know that Sony will showcase it heavily during its E3 presentation in June. It won’t be a purely single-player experience, and Mikkelsen added in the interview that there will be “collaboration from different people from different parts of the world.”

Death Stranding will release whenever Hideo Kojima is finished with it. The director previously hinted at a 2018 release window, but this seems almost impossible at this point. Given that Sony plans on sticking with the PlayStation 4 for the foreseeable future, however, it’s unlikely the game will have to jump to a newer console.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s sequel should go full Death Stranding
Sam Porter walks across a landscape in Death Stranding: Director's Cut.

During my The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom playthrough, I couldn’t stop thinking about Death Stranding.

Hideo Kojima’s one-of-a-kind “strand game” sprung to mind every time I crafted an ingenious device that would let me traverse Hyrule more easily. I felt like Sam Porter Bridges laying down ladders and ziplines to cut through the rough landscapes of postapocalyptic America. I kept joking to myself that Tears of the Kingdom is a strand game. The more I see players sharing their creations, though, the more serious I’m becoming about that claim.

Read more
You can get Death Stranding for free right now on PC. Here’s how
Death Stranding

Death Stranding is currently free on PC via the Epic Games Store. Players have until May 25 to claim their copy before another mystery game is available for free.

Epic Games Store has a long history of giving out games for free. Just last month, it gave away copies of Dying Light: Enhanced Edition over Easter weekend. Death Stranding, which usually retails for $30 on Epic Games Store, is a particularly big freebie, so you'll want to make sure you claim a copy while you can.

Read more
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf doesn’t seem to be coming out this year
Art for a Dragon Age: Dreadwolf short story released for Dragon Age day.

It seemed like the release of the long-awaited BioWare RPG Dragon Age: Dreadwolf could finally happen this year, but the latest financial report from EA suggests that the game won't be out before April 2024.
It has been about eight-and-a-half years since the last game in the series, Dragon Age: Inquisition, was released. This fourth entry in the Dragon Age franchise reportedly had a rocky development before the current, single-player version of the game really got off the ground after the release of Anthem. BioWare first teased this new Dragon Age at The Game Awards 2018 and gave it the subtitle Dreadwolf last June. Despite that, as well as leaks suggesting the gameplay was pretty far along, EA's latest financial results suggest it's not coming out very soon.

A slide in EA's Fiscal Year 2023 fourth-quarter financial results lists the games EA expects to release during fiscal year 2024, which runs from April 1 of this year until March 31, 2024. That list includes upcoming titles like Super Mega Baseball 4, F1 23, Immortals of Aveum, Madden 23, EA Sports FC, NHL 24, an unannounced EA Sports game, and an unannounced racing game, but no Dreadwolf.
Other EA games we know are in development, such as skate., Project Rene, EA Motive's Iron Man game, Respawn Entertainment's other Star Wars games, and the next Mass Effect, are all also excluded. Of course, there's the possibility that EA considers a 2023 release for Dreadwolf a secret, believes its release window is in question, or may have accidentally forgotten to include it, but if EA deliberately excluded it, that means Dreadwolf won't come out before March 31, 2024.
That is certainly disappointing for BioWare fans eagerly awaiting the developer to redeem itself after the disappointing launches of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. Still, players will probably also appreciate it if BioWare takes as long as it needs to make Dragon Age: Dreadwolf the best it can be. 

Read more