Death Stranding Movie Lands Its Director

The upcoming Death Stranding movie finally has a director attached. Back in late 202, famed video game director Hideo Kojima announced that he was in the process of developing a film adaptation of his 2019 title Death Stranding. It wasn’t until 2023 that A24 was revealed to have been attached to the project. Since then, little else on the Death Stranding movie has come about, which has led some to wonder about its status. Now, the project is taking a major leap forward as it has landed a pretty high-profile director to helm the film.

As reported by Deadline, Michael Sarnoski is set to both write and direct Death Stranding. Sarnoski is said to currently be in the post-production phase of his next movie, Death of Robin Hood, and as such is beginning to look forward to what he’ll be doing next. Once his work on Death of Robin Hood concludes, he’ll then be pivoting to work with A24 again on Death Stranding.

Generally speaking, Sarnoski doesn’t have many film credits to his name, but those that he does have are impressive. Sarnoski made a splash in 2021 with the release of Pig, which starred Nicolas Cage. His most recent film is that of A Quiet Place: Day One, which was released in 2024 to much acclaim. Given Sarnoski’s experience when it comes to working on darker, horror-related projects, it makes sense why he was tapped to lead the charge on Death Stranding.

As for Kojima’s involvement in the Death Stranding movie, the beloved director has already made it known that he’ll be working on the film in some capacity. Kojima happens to be quite busy at the moment, though, as he’s simultaneously working on a sequel to Death Stranding, a new horror project with Xbox dubbed OD, and a spiritual successor to the Metal Gear Solid series called Physint. How he’ll juggle all of this while also assisting on the Death Stranding film remains to be seen.

Currently, Death Stranding doesn’t have a release date or even a broad window and likely won’t hit theaters for many more years. Fortunately, the video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to arrive relatively soon on June 26th for PS5.