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

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.