Keanu Reeves Was Almost In Death Stranding Over Mads Mikkelsen

PS4 exclusive Death Stranding almost stared Keanu Reeves. That's right, not only was Keanu almost in Hideo Kojima's strange new PlayStation game, but he almost had a prominent role in it. What role exactly? The role Mads Mikkelsen holds. According to Kojima, while he wrote Mads Mikkelsen role for the actor, there were people telling him to use Keanu for the role instead. Kojima reveals he gave some thought to this, but ultimately decided Mads was the best for the role.

"Keanu is a great guy," said Kojima while speaking to our sister site GameSpot. "I have a close friend, Nicholas Refn, he introduced me to Mads and I made an offer to Mads to be in the game. I went to Denmark and talked to Nicholas again before I gave the offer to Mads, and I said I met Mads a couple of times but I really wanted to reconfirm with Nicholas that I really should work with Mads. Nicholas said, 'I made Mads grow. He's great, but the best guy is Keanu,' and he was doing Neon Demon at the time. So he was trying to persuade me to use Keanu, and I thought maybe I will change from Mads to Keanu."

Kojima continues, suggesting the decision wasn't easy, and, at one point, he had to ask the opinion of the chef of the restaurant he was eating at. The chef told him Keanu, but Kojima wasn't convinced.

"We were having this dinner, and there was this chef, and I called the chef and told him I'm thinking of using Mads, and asked what he thought," added Kojima. "Even the chef said maybe Keanu is better, even though he liked Mads a lot. But I did write the character for Mads, imagining him, so I am very happy that I offered it to Mads in the end."

While Keanu ultimately didn't make the cut, he could still appear in a Kojima game. Later in the interview, Kojima noted it would be great to work with Keanu, whether it be for a game, a movie, or a TV show. That said, just about everyone wants to work with Keanu. In other words, I hope Kojima didn't miss his opportunity, because I'd love to see the two come together for a project.

Death Stranding is set to release later this year on November 8. It will be available on the PS4 and the PS4 only.