Hideo Kojima, the mastermind behind the much-awaited action game Death Stranding 2, handpicked the cast himself. Kojima Productions selected Elle Fanning, Léa Seydoux, Norman Reedus, Shioli Kutsuna, Troy Baker, and Kevin Ko to join the famous developer in the nerve-wracking process of game development.

Why Hideo Kojima chose to pick the cast of Death Stranding 2 himself?

While talking about his process of sourcing talent, Kojima said that he doesn’t let casting agencies pick talent for him. The acclaimed Japanese video game director touched on the challenges of game development, which requires talented actors willing to stand by his side and “fight” through the issues with him.

In a tweet, Kojima explained that “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.” He added, “Various problems occur frequently in filming, voice recording, and game creation. I have chosen DS2 actors and actresses as special partners with whom I can fight together.”

While the cast for the English version of the game is final, Kojima is still on the hunt for actors who can do justice to the Japanese version. As part of his research, he’s been studying anime and watching dubbed versions of streaming content.

Death Stranding 2’s release date is yet to be announced, but the game has already garnered a lot of interest from gamers around the world. Fans are eagerly anticipating the game, which promises to be as good, if not better than its predecessor – Death Stranding.