Hideo Kojima Says Death Stranding Movie Will Be Much Different From the Game

Famed video game creator Hideo Kojima has shed more light on his plans for the upcoming film adaptation of Death Stranding. Within the past week, Kojima Productions and Hammerstone Studios announced that a movie based on the 2019 PS4 game Death Stranding was in the works. And while details are still sparse when it comes to who will write, direct, and star in the project, Kojima himself doesn’t think that it will have a lot in common with the story seen in the video game. 

In a conversation with IGN, Kojima talked more openly about how he’s approaching making a Death Stranding movie. The longtime game director said that he had many options on the table when it came to making a movie with those from Hollywood, but stated that a number of offers he received weren’t in line with his own vision. And while Kojima acknowledged that he doesn’t yet know every detail yet about this new adaptation of Death Stranding, it doesn’t sound like the game’s main protagonist, Sam Porter Bridges, is guaranteed to be involved. 

“We haven’t quite decided that yet,” Kojima said about an appearance from Bridges in the movie. “The failure of film adaptations of games from a while back has led to a lot of movies that cater to gamers, right? That’s why they have the same kind of look as a game. I don’t want the Death Stranding movie to be like that. Rather, I’m taking the approach of changing and evolving the world of Death Stranding in a way that suits film well. I made Death Stranding to be a game, and games are games. There’s no real need to turn them into films. So in a way, the Death Stranding movie is taking a direction that nobody has tried before with a movie adaptation of a game.”

Again, it’s worth stressing that this Death Stranding movie is still in the very early stages of development, so it’s hard to know exactly how it might turn out in the future. Still, it’s clear that Kojima and those at Kojima Productions are taking a much different approach to this project, especially when compared to other TV and film projects like The Last of Us, God of War, and Uncharted which look to more directly borrow ideas and story elements from their video game counterparts. 

How do you feel about this Death Stranding film based on Kojima’s current description? Is this a video game adaptation that will be on your radar in the future? Let me know either down in the comments or hit me up on Twitter at @MooreMan12.