Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding to get original animated feature film
The post-apocalyptic world of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding will be the setting of a new animated feature film.
The screenplay for this ambitious project will be written by Aaron Guzikowski, the acclaimed writer known for his work on the intense sci-fi series Raised by Wolves and Denis Villeneuve’s gripping thriller Prisoners.
This venture into animation is a collaborative effort between Kojima Productions, the Tokyo and Los Angeles-based studio founded by the visionary Japanese game designer Hideo Kojima, and Line Mileage, an animation company based in Los Angeles.
The partnership signals a deliberate strategy to broaden the reach of the Death Stranding narrative, tapping into the animated medium’s unique creative possibilities.
The film is currently in development and is anticipated to align with a growing trend of mature animated genre productions, drawing parallels to recent announcements like the John Wick animated prequel and Predator: Killer of Killers, which just saw its release on Hulu and Disney+ this month.
Death Stranding was originally launched in 2019 and challenged conventional video game narratives while earning widespread recognition for its innovative gameplay.
The game features a star-studded cast, including Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, and Guillermo del Toro, that was more in line with what was expected of a prestige TV series rather than a video game.
Set in a fractured future America, the game explores a cataclysmic event that has linked the realms of the living and the dead, forcing protagonist Sam Porter Bridges to reconnect a splintered society.
Its cinematic presentation has often been cited as pushing the boundaries of interactive storytelling.
The forthcoming animated film will tell an original story within the world established by the game series.
Expressing his enthusiasm for the project, Guzikowski shared:
“I love the world of Death Stranding, it’s so creatively freeing, so beautifully dark and yet hopeful. I’m so excited and honored that Hideo Kojima, whose work I’ve long admired, has invited me to dwell within his creation, to birth new stories into this fertile, mind-bending universe.”
Daniel Dominguez, CCO of Line Mileage, emphasized how the inherent cinematic quality of the original Death Stranding game naturally lends itself to an animated adaptation.
Animation allows for greater artistic liberty in depicting the game’s otherworldly landscapes, spectral entities, and intricate character designs, and provides the ability to create visual spectacles that might be challenging to achieve within live-action constraints.
It is important to note that this newly announced animated feature exists independently of a previously confirmed live-action Death Stranding adaptation, which Kojima Productions is developing with the acclaimed studio A24.
The news of this animated feature arrives shortly before the arrival of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach which is due to be released on June 26th, 2025.
Source: Deadline
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