Death Stranding 2 Solid Snake Lookalike Explained By Kojima

Just the other day, Hideo Kojima announced the release date for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and the trailer accompanying the announcement had a very cool surprise for Kojima fans.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do that first, as you’ll see a familiar face pop up — or at least that’s what it looks like at first. Appearing in the trailer is a new character named Neil, that looks very similar to Solid Snake from Metal Gear.

Nope, Solid Snake Is Not In Death Stranding 2

Sadly, nope, Solid Snake won’t be in Death Stranding 2. I mean, it’s even absurd to even think about it, but yeah, don’t get your hopes up.

Over on Twitter/X, Kojima talked about the casting of Death Stranding 2’s character Neil, who’s played by Italian actor Luca Marinelli.

Kojima notes, “Luca Marinelli, the man we asked to play the role of Neil. I first learned of him through his role as the antagonist (Fabio Cannizzaro/Zingaro) in the Italian film “They Call Me Jeeg,” and I fell in love with his amazing acting in Jack London’s autobiographical film, “Martin Eden,” which was released in Japan in 2020. It was a great film, and I was asked to help promote it when it was released. That was when I was contacted by a representative of the Japanese distributor. He told me that Luca had read my comments and wanted my contact info so he could convey his feelings directly to “KOJIMA-SAN.” Soon after, I received an e-mail from Luca.”

The email reads, “I grew up with Metal Gear. I am a big fan of yours. I am very honored that you saw the film I starred in. I wanted to tell you this directly.”

Kojima explains that during the pandemic, when he was casting for Death Stranding 2, Neil would be an important character that replaces Cliff from the first Death Stranding, and how the fans “would not be satisfied” unless the casting would surpass Mads Mikkelsen (who played Cliff in the first game).

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Adding to his casting choice, Kojima states, “I also watched Luca in “The Old Guard” on Netflix. I decided that Luca was the only choice for the role of Neil and sent him an e-mail with an offer. Apparently, Luca was in the mountains of Tibet filming “The Eight Mountains (2022)” at the time. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but he had just come down from the mountains where he was filming and happened to be thinking about me before he saw my message, and Luca said, “This has been a spiritual experience.”

Kojima ends his message by saying he pitched the idea of Death Stranding 2 to Luca via a Zoom call, and when Kojima was looking for someone to play Lucy in DS2, Luca suggested his wife to take on the role.

Kojima did their scan and performance capture during the pandemic, and he ends it by thanking the couple for agreeing to perform even when they didn’t even have a script yet,

This is an interesting behind-the-scenes look at casting what’s possibly Death Stranding 2’s most controversial character to date. Hopefully, Kojima shares more about the other cast members soon.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will be released this June 26 on the PS5.

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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the upcoming sequel from Hideo Kojima for Death Stranding. As mysterious and inscrutable as the first game was leading up to launch, details are sparse on this bizarre open-world exploration game.

Franchise

Death Stranding

Released

June 26, 2025