Hideo Kojima has done the voice casting for Death Stranding 2 himself

Oct 04, 2023

Kojima has a specific criteria for his actors

Hideo Kojima has revealed that he did the casting for Death Stranding 2 himself, choosing to work with actors that he can "fight together" with.

As revealed by Kojima on Twitter, the head of Kojima Productions didn't use any casting agencies when finding the actors to work on Death Stranding 2 - instead choosing to take on the role himself. "Since I will be spending [a] very long period of time working with actors and voice actors, I don't let agencies/agents do casting," Kojima writes.

"Various problems occur frequently in filming, voice recording, and game creation," the tweet continues, "corrections and changes in plans are a daily occurrence. I have chosen DS2 actors and actresses as special partners with whom I can fight together."

If you didn't know, Death Stranding 2 is set to see the return of Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, and Troy Baker. The sequel will also introduce some new characters played by Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna, as well as possibly some other characters we're yet to discover.

Since I will be spending very long period of time working with actors and voice actors, I don't let agencies/agents do casting. Of course, we ask agents to help us during the contract stage. Various problems occur frequently in filming, voice recording, and game creation.… pic.twitter.com/IC6WGVuw60June 1, 2023

In a separate tweet, Kojima also talked about casting for the Japanese dub of the game. "The recording won't be done for a while yet, but I've been thinking about casting the Japanese dub for the main new characters in DS2," Kojima reveals, "over the past few years, I've been studying by watching anime I don't normally watch and trying to watch the dubbed versions of the streaming contents as well as [Blu-ray discs]."

Speaking again about taking on the role of a casting director, Kojima adds: "Casting is the key to both the actors for DS2 and the voice actors for the Japanese voice-over version. I can't leave this to others."

Following up on this tweet, Kojima also shares that "there are quite a few new characters in DS2," and that for him, cast members are chosen "not only for their voice quality, acting, and suitability for the character" but also for their "balance with other characters and chemical reactions to each other on set."

Cast members are chosen not only for their voice quality, acting, and suitability for the character, but also for their balance with other characters and their chemical reactions to each other on the set. Since we don't pick the cast by pinpoint, the chemistry between the cast… https://t.co/X2y55t6YFCJune 1, 2023

Although these tweets don't give us much to go off in terms of what to expect from Death Stranding 2, they do give us an insight into Kojima's way of working. Speaking of, Kojima has been sharing several sneak peeks at Death Stranding 2's development online recently.

Curious about what else we've got on the horizon? Take a look at our new games 2023 list.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.

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