Ex-voice actor of Big Boss, David Hayter has responded to a fan query regarding his possible appearance as Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. When asked by a fan that whether it’s safe to assume he is Solid Snake in MGS5, Hayter’s response is rather twisted.
“I’m not “not allowed” to not tell anyone about anything,” he tweeted back. Brain twister, right? If you read closely, he is saying that he is allowed to to not tell anyone regarding this. In the past, there have been some vague indicators that Hayter may be returning back to the series. Audio files which sound similar to him were found last month in the PC version of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and Hayter’s friend Quinton Flynn, the voice actor for Raiden stated that he was told that he is still Solid Snake and Kiefer Sutherland has only taken over the role of Big Boss.
Hayter has stated on couple of times that he is not involved with the game in anyway. But there is a theory among fans that Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain will possibly bridge events till the original Metal Gear which was released in 1987. Hideo Kojima has also explicitly stated in the past that Solid Snake will return in Metal Gear Solid 5, however those statements were made before the game was announced.
But close to the release of Ground Zeroes earlier in 2014, Kojima was asked by GameInformer whether The Phantom Pain will close the gap between the stories of Solid Snake and Big Boss, to which he replied, “Please don’t look me in the eyes because I’m so tempted to tell you and I shouldn’t. What I should say is that there is a specific way for the games to put things together.” He was also asked about his ideal candidate for Solid Snake’s VO by CVG back during E3 2013, to which he replied, “Well he’s a child… I don’t know if I have someone to recommend but let me think! (laughs) At the same time I don’t even know if Solid Snake will make an appearance in this game. If we said anything right now it would be a spoiler and bad for the fans, so we’re going to stay away from that question.”
Take this with a grain of salt as Hayter may be just playing around with his fans.
On a related note, Konami’s Tora Shiro took to Neogaf to share his thoughts on the release date of the game. “Trust me, it’s only compounded by how much I want that info out, as well– so we can get to talking about more fun parts of the game. It seems we’re all just really hinging on that release date,” he said. He also confirmed that the game is scheduled to be released in 2015 and won’t slip in 2016.
Hideo Kojima will be showcasing new information at the Taipei Games Show On January 31st, so let us hope that he finally gives us the release date then.